and Apollo's watering do receive increase For being thus resolved upon the point it was not long before he had an opportunity to set it forwards He had before attained unto an high esteem for Arts and Oratory and was conceived to have made so good a proficiency in the Studies of Divinity also that in the year 1602. he was admitted to read the Lecture of Mrs. May's Foundation with the general liking of that Colledge With the like general consent and approbation he was chosen out of all the rest of that Society to be a Candidate for the Proctorship in the University into which Office he was chosen on the fourth of May 1603. which was as soon as he was capable of it by the University Statutes which Office he discharged with great applause as to himself and general satisfaction unto others Doctor George Abbot Master of Vniversity Colledge who afterwards attained to the See of Canterbury was at that time Vice-chancellor of the University whom with the rest of the Doctors and Heads of Houses he accompanied to Woodstock Manor to present themselves and tender their most humble service to the most Mighty Prince King Iames succeeding on the 24th of March before to the Crown of England And in this year it was but whether in reading of the Lecture of Mrs. May's Foundation or some other Chappel Exercise I am not able to say he maintained the constant and perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ derived from the Apostles to the Church of Rome continued in that Church as in others of the East and South till the Reformation Dr. Abbot Master of Vniversity Colledg and Vice-chancellor was of a different opinion and could not finde any such visibility of the Christian Church but by tracing it as well as he could from the Berengarians to the Albigenses from the Albigenses to the Wickliffists from the Wickliffists unto the Hussites and from the Hussites unto Luther and Calvin for proof whereof we may consult a Book of his entituled The Visibility of the Church published in those busie Times when this impertinent Question viz. Where Was your Church before Luther was as impertinently insisted on by the Priests and Jesuites This being his opinion also when he lived in Oxon he thought it a great derogation to his Parts and Credit that any man should dare to maintain the contrary and thereupon conceived a strong grudge against him which no tract of time could either abolish or diminish In the next year viz. 1604. he peformed his Exercise for Batchelor of Divinity in which he maintained these two Points First The necessity of Baptism Secondly That there could be no true Church without Diocesan Bishops For which last he was shrewdly ratled by Doctor Holland above-mentioned as one that did endeavour to cast a bone of Discord betwixt the Church of England and the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and for the first it was objected That he had taken the greatest part of his Supposition out of Bellarmines Works as if the Doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God or any necessary Truths were to be renounced because they are defended by that Learned Cardinal But misfortunes seldom come alone if at the least it may be counted a misfortune to be reproach'd for standing up in defence of truth For not long after viz. Anno 1606. he was questioned by Dr. Airy being Vice-chancellor for that year for a Sermon preached in St. Maries Church on the 26th of October as containing in it sundry scandalous and Popish passages the good man taking all things to be matter of Popery which were not held forth unto him in Calvins Institutes conceiving that there was as much Idolatry in bowing at the Name of IESVS as in worshipping the brasen Serpent and as undoubtedly believing that Antichrist was begotten on the Whore of Babylon as that Pharez and Zara were begotten on the body of Tamar Which advantage being taken by Doctor Abbot he so violently persecuted the poor man and so openly branded him for a Papist or at least very Popishly enclined that it was almost made an Heresie as I have heard from his own mouth for any one to be seen in his company and a misprision of Heresie to give him a civil Salutation as he walked the Streets But there will one day come a time when Doctor Abbot may be made more sensible of these Oppressions when he shall see this poor despised man standing upon the higher ground and more above him in respect of Power than beneath in Place So unsafe a thing it is for them that be in Authority to abuse their Power and carry matters on to the last extremities as if they had Fortune in a string and could be sure to lead her with them whithersoever they went This scandal being raised at Oxon it was not long before it flew to Cambridge also at what time Mr. Ioseph Hall who died Bishop of Norwich about the year 1657. was exercising his Pen in the way of Epistles in one of which inscribed to Mr. W. L. the two first Letters of his Name it was generally supposed that he aimed at him and was this that followeth I would saith he I knew where to finde you then I could tell how to take direct aims whereas now I must pore and conjecture To day you are in the Tents of the Romanists to morrow in ours the next day between both against both Our Adversaries think you ours we theirs your Conscience findes you with both and neither I flatter you not This of yours is the worst of all tempers Heat and Cold have their uses Lukewarmness is good for nothing but to trouble the stomack Those that are spiritually hot find acceptation those that are stark cold have a lesser reckoning the mean between both is so much worse as it comes neerer to good and attains it not How long will you halt in this indifferency Resolve one way and know at last what you do hold what you should Cast off either your wings or your teeth and loathing this Bat-like Nature be either a Bird or a Beast To die wavering and uncertain your self will grant fearful If you must settle when begin you If you must begin why not now It is dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly and whose opportunity is doubtful God cryeth with Iehu Who is on my side who Look at last out of your window to him and in a resolute courage cast down the Iezebel that hath bewitched you Is there any impediment which delay will abate Is there any which a just answer cannot remove If you had rather waver who can settle you But if you love not inconstancy tell us why you stagger Be plain or else you will never be firm c. But notwithstanding these false bruits and this smart Epistle Doctor Buckridge who had been his Tutor and from whom he received his Principles had better assurance of his unfeigned sincerity in the true
first and afterwards the efficacy of it And first in reference to the Necessity The first Reformers did not only allow the administration of this Sacrament in private houses but permitted it to private persons even to women also For it was ordered in the Rubrick of Private Baptism That when any great need shall compel as in extremity of weakness they which are present shall call upon God for his Grace and say the Lords Prayer if the time will suffer and then one of them shall name the Childe and dip him in the water or poure water upon him saying these words N. I Baptize thee in the name of the Father c. At which passage when King Iames seemed to be offended in the Conference at Hampton-Court because of the liberty which they gave to Women and Laicks It was answered then by Dr. Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury That the administration of Baptisme by Women and Lay Persons was not allowed in the practice of the Church but enquired of and censured by the Bishops in their Visitations and that the words in the Book inferred no such meaning Against which when the King excepted urging and pressing the words of the Book that they could not but intend a permission and suffering of Women and private Persons to Baptize It was answered by Dr. Babington then Bishop of Worcester That indeed the words were doubtful and might be pressed to that meaning but that it seemed by the contrary practice of this Church censuring Women in this case That the Compilers of that Book did not so intend them and yet propounded them ambiguously because otherwise perhaps the Book would not have then passed in the Parliament But then stood forth the Bishop of London Dr. Bancroft and plainly said That it was not the intent of those Learned and Reverend men who framed the Book of Common-Prayer by ambiguous terms to deceive any but did indeed by those words intend a permission of private persons to Baptize in case of Necessity whereof their Letters were witnesses some parts whereof he then read and withal declared That the same was agreeable to the practice of the ancient Church as appeared by the Authority of Tertullian and of S. Ambrose on the 4th of the Ephesians who are plain in that point laying also open the absurdities and impieties of their opinions who think there is no necessity of Baptism And though at the motion of that King it was ordered that the words Lawful Minister should be put into the Rubrick First let the LAWFVL MINISTER and them that be present call upon God for his Grace c. The said LAWFVL MINISTER shall dip it into the Water c. yet was the alteration greater in sound then sense it being the opinion of many great Clerks that any man in cases of extream necessity who can pronounce the words of Baptism may pass in the account and notion of a lawful Minister So much for the necessity of Baptism And as for the efficacacy thereof it is said expresly in the 27. Article To be a sign of Regeneration or New Birth whereby as by an Instrument they that receive Baptisme rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of forgiveness of Sin and of our Adoption to be the Sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace is encreased by vertue of Prayer unto God and as expresly it is said in one of the Rubricks before Confirmation That it is certain by Gods word that Children being Baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved that is to say for so it must be understood in case they dye before they fall into the committing of Actual Sins 29. Touching good works and how far they conduce unto our Iustification the breach was wider at the first breakin gs out of Luther then it hath been since Luther ascribing Iustification unto Faith alone without relation unto Works and those of Rome ascribing it to good Works alone without relation unto Faith which they reckoned only amongst the preparatives unto it But when the point had been long canvased and the first heats were somewhat cooled they began to come more neer unto one another For when the Papists attributed Iustification unto Works alone they desired to be understood of such good Works as proceeded from a true and lively Faith and when the Lutherans ascribed it to Faith alone they desired to be understood of such a Faith as was productive of good Works and attended by them The Papists thereupon began to cherish the distinction between the first and second Iustification ascribing the first unto Faith only the second which the Protestants more properly called by the name of Sanctification to the works of Righteousness The Protestants on the other side distinguishing between Fides sola and solitaria between Sola Fides and Fides quae est Sola intending by that nicity that though Faith alone doth justifie a sinner in the sight of God yet that it is not such a Faith as was alone but stood accompanied with good Works And in this way the Church of England went in her Reformation declaring in the 11 Article That we are accounted righteous before God only for the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith and not for our own works or deservings Which Justification by Faith only is further declared to be a most wholesome Doctrine and very full of comfort for which we are referred to the Book of Homilies And in the Book of Homilies we shall also finde That we may well bear the name of Christian men but we lack that true Faith which belongeth thereunto For true Faith doth evermore bring forth good Works as St. Iames speaketh Shew me thy Faith by thy Works Thy Deeds and Works must be an open testimony of thy Faith otherwise thy Faith being without good Works is but the Devils faith the faith of the wicked a phantasie of Faith and not a true Christian Faith And that the people might be be trained up in the works of Righteousness it is declared in the 7th Article That no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral According whereunto it is ordered by the publick Liturgy that the said Commandments shall be openly read in the Congregation upon Sundayes and Holy Dayes contrary to the usage of all ancient Liturgies the people humbly praying God To have mercy upon them for their transgression of those Laws and no less humbly praying him To encline their hearts to keep the same So that though Faith must lead the way to our Iustification yet holiness of life manifested in the works of Charity and all other acts of godly living must open the way for us to the Gates of Heaven and procure our entrance at the same as is apparent by the 25. of St. Matthews Gospel from verse 34. to 41. 30. Which being so it may be well affirmed without any wrong
to Faith that good Works are necessary to salvation and not so only but that they are efficienter necessaria as was maintained publickly in the Schools of Cambridge though it was much carpt at by some men that did not rightly and distinctly understand the term And secondly It may be said without any wrong to the Free Grace and Merits of Almighty God that a reward is due for the Works of Righteousness proceeding from a lively Faith in a man regenerate not that the Church ascribeth any merit to the works of man which may deserve eternal life either ex congruo or condigno as the School-men phrase it for Deus non coronat in nobis merita nostra sed dona sua as the Father hath it No reward is due unto good Works ratione operis in reference to the work it self but ratione pacti acceptationis though Bellarmine be otherwise minded in respect of Gods merciful acceptance and his most gracious promise to reward the same It was his grace and goodness only which moved him to encourage our imperfect and weak obedience with the promise of eternal life yet having made the promise he became our debtor Non aliquid debendo sed omnia promittendo Deus se facit debitorem as St. Augustine tells us And most agreeable it is to his heavenly justice not to be wanting to his promise Such a Reward as this for the works of Righteousness as the Scriptures frequently do mention both in the Old Testament and New Gen. 47. Psalm 19.11 Mat. 5.12 and 10.41 42. Mark 9.41 Apoc. 22.11 so is the same defended in the Church of England And this appears first by the Athanasian Creed incorporated into the body of our publick Liturgy as a part thereof In the close of which it is affirmed That at Christs coming unto Judgemenr all men shall rise again with their bodies and give an account of their own works that they which have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire And secondly It appears as plainly by the Collect for the 25. Sunday after Trinity where the Church called on the Lord To stir up the wills of his faithful people that they plenteously bringing forth the fruits of good works may of him be plenteously rewarded through Iesus Christ In which we have not only a reward for the fruit of good works but a plentiful reward into the bargain according to the quality of the work it self and the acceptableness of the person in the sight of God 31. Next look we on the Doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon which have given matter of division to the Christian Church in all times and ages dividing between the general current of the Fathers till St. Augustines time and the learned men which followed him and his authority between the Iesuites and Franciscans on the one side and the Dominicans on the other in the Church of Rome between the moderate and rigid Lutherans in the Church Protestant between the Remonstrants and the Contra-Remonstrants in the Schools of Calvin and finally between the Sublapsarians and the Supra-Lapsarians amongst the Contra-Remonstrants themselves Of these the Sublapsarian Calvinists for of the dotages of the other I shall take no notice the Rigid Lutherans and the Dominican Friars pretend St. Augustine for their Patron and on the other side the Remonstrants commonly nick-named Arminians The Moderate or Melancthonian Lutherans together with the Iesuites and Franciscans appeal unto the general current of the ancient Fathers who lived and flourished ante mota certamina Pelagiana before the starting up of the Pelagian Controversies And to this general current of the ancient Fathers the Church of England most enclines teaching according to their Doctrine that God from all eternity intending to demonstrate his power and goodness designed the Creation of the World the making of man after his own Image and leaving him so made in a perfect liberty to do or not to do what he was commanded and that fore-knowing also from all eternity that man abusing this liberty would plunge himself and his posterity into a gulph of miseries he graciously resolved to provide them such a Saviour who should redeem them from their sins to elect all those to life eternal who by true Faith laid hold upon him leaving the rest in the same state in which he found them for their incredulity It is reported of Agilmond the second King of the Lombards that riding by a Fish-Pond he saw seven young Children sprawling in it whom their unnatural Mothers as Paulus Diaconus conceived had thrown into it not long before Amazed whereat he put his Hunting Spear amongst them and stirred them gently up and down which one of them laying hold of was drawn to Land called Lamistus from the word Lama which in the Language of that people signifies a Fish-Pond trained up in that Kings Court and finally made his Successor in the Kingdom Granting that Agilmond being fore-warned in a Vision that he should finde such Children sprawling for life in the midst of that Pond might thereupon take a resolution within himself to put his Hunting Spear amongst them and that which of them soever should lay hold upon it should be gently drawn out of the water adopted for his Son and made Heir of all his Kingdom no humane Story could afford us the like parallel case to Gods proceeding in the great work of Predestination to eternal life according to the Doctrine of the Church of England 32. Now that such was the Doctrine of the first Reformers may be made evident by the Definition of Predestination Predestination unto life saith the 17. Article is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly declared by his Council secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation In which Definition there are these things to be observed First That Predestination doth pre-suppose a curse or a state of Damnation in which all mankinde was presented to the sight of God Secondly That it is an act of his from everlasting because from everlasting he foresaw that misery into which wretched man would fall Thirdly That he founded it and resolved for it in the Man and Mediator Christ Jesus both for the purpose and performance Fourthly That it was of some special ones alone Elect called forth and reserved in Christ and not generally extended unto all mankinde Fifthly That being thus elected in Christ they shall be brought by Christ to everlasting salvation And sixthly That this Council is secret unto us for though there be revealed to us some hopeful signes of our Election and Predestination unto life yet the certainty thereof is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us Nothing obscure in this Definition but these words Whom he hath chosen in Christ
having lived sometimes in one of our English Seminaries beyond the Seas declared himself as profest a Papist and as eager in the pursuit of that way as any other whatsoever But being regained unto this Church by his Brother William who lost himself in the encounter he thought he could not sufficiently express his detestation of the errors and corruptions in the Church of Rome but by running to the other extream and making himself considerable amongst the Puritans On which account as he became very gracious to Sir Francis Walsingham so was he quickly made the Spiritual Head of the Puritan Faction in which capacity he managed their business for them in the Conference at Hampton Court Anno 1603. where he appeared the principal if not only Speaker the other three that is to say Spark Chadderton and Knewstubs serving no otherwise than as Mutes and Cyphers to make up the mess. By the power and practices of these men the disposition of those times and the long continuance of the Earl of Leicester the principal Patron of that Faction in the place of Chancellor the face of that University was so much altered that there was little to be seen in it of the Church of England according to the Principles and Positions upon which it was at first Reformed All the Calvinian Rigors in matters of Predestination and the Points depending thereupon received as the Established Doctrines of the Church of England the necessity of the one Sacrament the eminent dignity of the other and the powerful efficacy of both unto mans salvation not only disputed but denyed the Article of Christs local descent into hell so positively asserted in two Convocations Anno 1552. and 1562. at first corrupted with false Glosses afterwards openly contradicted and at last totally disclaimed because repugnant to the Fancies of some Forreign Divines though they at odds amongst themselves in the meaning of it Episcopacy maintained by halves not as a distinct Order from that of the Presbyters but only a degree above them or perhaps not that for fear of giving scandal to the Churches of Calvins Platform the Church of Rome inveighed against as the Whore of Babylon or the Mother of Abominations the Pope as publickly maintained to be Antichrist or the Man of Sin and that as positively and magisterially as if it had been one of the chief Articles of the Christian Faith and then for fear of having any good thoughts for either the visibility of the Church must be no otherwise maintained than by looking for it in the scattered Conventicles of the Berengarians in Italy the Albigenses in France the Huffites in Bohemia and the Wickliffists among our selves Nor was there any greater care taken for the Forms and Orders of this Church than there had been for points of Doctrine the Surplice so disused in officiating the Divine Service of the Church and the Divine Service of the Church so slubbered over in most of the Colledges that the Prelates and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1603. were necessitated to frame two Canons that is to say Can. 16 17. to bring them back again to the ancient practise particularly the bowing at the Name of IESVS commanded by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1559. and used in most Churches of the Kingdom so much neglected and decryed that Airy Provost of Queens Colledge writ a Tract against it the Habits of the Priests by which they were to be distinguished from other men not only by the Queens Injunctions but also by some following Canons made in Convocation so much despised and laid aside that Doctor Reynolds had the confidence to appear in the Conference at Hampton Court in his Turky Gown and therefore may be thought to have worn no other in the University And in a word the Books of Calvin made the Rule by which all men were to square their Writings his only word like the ipse dixit of Pythagoras admitted for the sole Canon to which they were to frame and conform their Judgments and in comparison of whom the Ancient Fathers of the Church men of Renown and the Glories of their several Times must be held contemptible and to offend against this Canon or to break this Rule esteemed a more unpardonable Crime than to violate the Apostles Canons or dispute the Doctrines and Determinations of any of the four first general Councels so as it might have proved more safe for any man in such a general deviation from the Rules and Dictates of this Church to have been look'd upon as an Heathen or Publican than an Anti-Calvinist But Laud was of a stronger Metal than to give up himself so tamely and being forged and hammered on a better Anvil would not be wrought on by the times or captivate his Understanding to the Names of Men how great soever they appeared in the eyes of others Nor would he run precipitately into common Opinions for common Opinions many times are but common Errors as Calderinus is reported to have gone to Mass because he would not break company with the rest of his friends His Studies in Divinity he had founded on the Holy Scriptures according to the Glosses and Interpretations of the ancient Fathers for doing which he had the countenance and direction of a Canon made in Convocation Anno 1571. by which it was appointed That in interpreting the Scriptures they were to raise no other Doctrines from them than what had been collected thence from the ancient Fathers and other godly Bishops of the Primitive times And laying to this Line the establish'd Doctrines and Determinations of the Church of England it was no hard matter to him to discern how much the Church had deviated from her self or most men rather from the Church in those latter times how palpably the Articles had been wrested from the Literal and Gramatical sence to fit them to the sence of particular persons how a different construction had been put upon them from that which was the true and genuine meaning of the men that framed them and the Authority which confirmed them and finally that it would be a work of much glory but of much more merit to bring her back again to her native Principles But then withal it was as easie to discern how desperate an attempt it must needs appear for a single man unseconded and not well befriended to oppose himself against an Army how vain a thing to strive against so strong a stream and cross the current of the times that the disease by long neglect was grown so natural and habitual that more mischief might be feared from the Medicine than from the Malady that he must needs expose himself to many Censures and Reproaches and possibly to some danger also by the undertaking But these last considerations being weighed in the Scale of the Sanctuary appeared so light that he was resolved to try his fortune in the work and to leave the issue thereof unto God by whom Paul's planting
above mentioned to the Bishop of Lincoln and in that Letter he desired his Lordship having first moved that the High Commission would be pleased to take some speedy order in it to let him have his lawful assistance to the end that so long as he did nothing but what was established and practised in the Church of England he might not be brought into contempt by turbulent Spirits at his first entrance on that place and so be disinabled to do that good service which he owed to the Church of Christ withall propounding to his Lordship that if it stood with his good liking his Majesty might be made acquainted with the first success of his endeavors for reforming such things as he found most amiss in that Church c. Whilst these things were thus agitated in the Reformation of the Church of Glocester there were other Actings in the Court touching the Reformation of some things in the Vniversity of Oxon. Laud had before informed the Bishop of Lincoln concerning the course usage which he had from Dr. Abbot as before was said Which being represented to his Majesty it was withall insinuated to him what dangers would proceed by the training up of young Students in the Grounds of Calvinism if some directions were not issued from his Majesty for the course of their studies that there was no readier way to advance the Presbyterial Government in this Kingdom than by suffering young Scholars to be seasoned with Calvinian Doctrines that it was very hard to say whether of the two either the Puritan or the Papist were more destructive of Monarchical Government and finally that for want of subscription to the three Articles contained in the 36. Canon not only Lecturers but divers other Preachers in and about the University positively maintained such points of Doctrine as were not maintained or allowed by the Church of England Which matter his Majesty having taken into consideration by the advice of such Bishops and others of the Clergy as were then about him upon the eighteenth of Ianuary he dispatcht these Directions following to the Vice Chancellor the Heads of Colledges and Halls the two Professors and the two Proctors of the University to be carefully and speedily put in execution JAMES REX 1. That it was his Majesties pleasure that he would have all that take any degree in Schools to subscribe to the three Articles in the 36th Canon 2. That no Preacher be allowed to preach in the Town but such as are every way conformable both by subscription and every other way 3. That all Students do resort to the Sermons in St. Maries and be restrained from going to any other Church in the time of St. Maries Sermons and that provision be made that the Sermons in St. Maries be diligently made and performed both before-noon and afternoon 4. That the ordinary Divinity Act be constantly kept with three Replicants 5. That there be a greater Restraint of Schollars haunting Town-houses especially in the night 6. That all Scholars both at the Chappels and at the Schools keep their Scholastical Habits 7. That young Students in Divinity be directed to study such books as be most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and encited to bestow their times in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abreviatures making them the Grounds of their study in Divinity 8. That no man either in Pulpit or Schools be suffered to maintain Dogmatically any point of Doctrine that is not allowed by the Church of England 9. That Mr. Vice-Chancellor and the two Professors or two of the Heads of Houses do at such time as his Majesty resorts into those parts wait upon his Majesty and give his Majesty a just account how these his Majesties Instructions are observed 10. Let no man presume of what condition or degree soever not to yield his obedience to these his Majesty Directions lest he incur such censures as the Statutes of this Vniversity may justly inflict upon such transgressors This was the first step toward the suppressing of that Reputation which Calvin and his Writings had attained unto in that University and a good step it might have been if Dr Goodwin Dean of Christ Church who was then Vice-Chancellor had not been Father-in-law to Prideaux or rather if Prideaux himself had approved the Articles or that Dr. Benfield of Corpus Christi the other Professor for Divinity a grave but sedentary man had been active in it But howsoever being published though it went no farther it gave such a general Alarm to the Puritan Faction that the terrour of it could not be forgotten in 20. years after Certain I am that in the year 1636. it was charged by H. Burton of Fryday-street for an Innovation one of the many Innovations introduced by Laud and others of the Prelatical party to subvert Religion But leaving them to the folly of their own affrightments let us look back unto the King who being confident that he had left the University in a ready way for coming to an Vnity in matters of Doctrine prepared for his Journey into Scotland with a like confidence of effecting an Vniformity in Forms of Worship A matter of consequence and weight and therefore to be managed by able Ministers such as knew how to winde and turn the Presbyterians of that Kingdom if matters should proceed to a Disputation The known Abilities of Laud mark'd him out for one which though it were like to bring a great Charge upon him yet he preferred the Reputation before the Charge and chearfully embrac'd the Service Nor was it more welcom unto him than grateful to the Bishop of Lincoln assured thereby not only of a trusty Friend but of a sociable Companion for that tedious Journey His Majesty having filled up the List of his Attendants on the 14th day of March began his Journey accompanied by the Queen and Prince as far as Theobalds and from thence went forward with his Train before appointed By the way he called in at the City of Lincoln where it is not to be doubted but that the Bishop gave him as magnificent an Entertainment as the Place and Country would afford And from this place it was that he dated his Instructions of the 14th of April to the Lord Iohn Digby then going Embassador into Spain to Treat upon and Conclude a Marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta Maria the Second Daughter of that King one of which Articles was to this effect That the Espousals being made in Spain according to the Order of the Councel of Trent the Marriage should be solemnized in England where there should be such a Solemnization as by the Laws of this Realm should make the Marriage valid and take away all scruple touching the Legitimation of the Issue Which temperament seems to me to have very much in it of Laud's hand and spirit In the beginning of May 1617. his Majesty was come as far
pass'd two Acts in the Assembly held at Aberdeen Anno 1616. the one for making one Uniform Order or Form of Worship to be prepared by some Bishops and other Learned men amongst them by them to be presented to the King and being by the King approved to be by him commended to the use of that Kirk The other for consulting the Registry of their formeâ— Assemblys and extracting out of them such Canons as being ratified by the stamp of Royal Authority might pass for currant in the same To speed this business and strike the Iron whilst it was hot his Majesty made that chargeable Journey into Scotland which before we spake of with an intent to press them personally to the receiving of some few of the English Ceremonies which had been offered to the consideration of the late Assembly the better to advance his hopes of introducing by degrees the Liturgy of the Church of England Which Ceremonies being reduced to five Articles and propounded to them at his being there found such success and put the King upon such Councels as have been formerly declared But what he could not compass in the year foregoing he obtained in this those Articles being passed in an Assembly held at Perth in the Month of August and are these that follow 1. That for the more reverend Receiving of the Holy Communion the same should be celebrated to the People thereafter kneeling and not sitting as had been the Custom since the Reformation of Religion 2. If any good Christian visited with sickness which was taken to be deadly should desire to receive the Communion at home in his house the same should not be denied to him lawful warning being given to the Minister the night before and three or four of good Religion and Conversation being present to Communicate with him 3. That in case of necessity tried and known to the Minister it should be lawful to Administer Baptism in private Houses the same being always Ministred after the form in which it should have been in the Congregation A publick Declaration of it to be made the next Sunday after 4. That the days of the Birth Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Christ and of the coming down of the Holy Ghost in regard of those inestimable Benefits which the Church of God had received on them should be publickly Solemnized in the Congregation the Ministers making choice of fit Texts of Scripture agreeable to the Occasions for their several Sermons 5. That the Minister in every Parish having Catechized all Children above eight years of age according to the short Catechism used in the Church and taught them to repeat by heart the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should present them to their Bishops in their Visitations by them to be blessed with Prayers for the increase of Grace and continuance of Gods heavenly Gifts upon them And this indeed was a great step to the work of Uniformity so much desired which had it been pursued as vigorously by the Bishops of Scotland as by the King it had been piously begun the Service which was sent into that Kirk almost twenty years afteâ— had been better welcom'd by the Scots and drawn less danger upon Laud who was then Archbishop for his pious Actings in the same But on the other side the condemning of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly called them at the Synod of Dort was altogether as much unpleasing as the others had been grateful to him for well he saw the great dangers which might thence ensue to the Church of England whose Doctrines were openly confronted and her Discipline secretly undermined by the Decisions and Determinations of that Synodical Assembly In which regard it will not be unnecessary to make a brief Relation of those stirs and differences which hapned in the Belgick Churches from the time that Doctor Iacob van Harmine was made one of the Divinity Professors in the University of Leyden Concerning which we are first to know That at the Alteration of Religion in those Provinces the French who were most active in it brought with them Calvin's Platform both for Doctrine and Discipline as commonly the one makes way to bring in the other according unto which the Belgick Confession was drawn up in the year 1567. Which notwithstanding such of their Ministers as better liked the Melancthonian Doctrines in the points of Predestination Grace Free-will c. than they did the other spared not to publish their Opinions as they saw occasion as well before as after the establishing of the said Confession and did it without check or censure Amongst which we may first reckon Anastasius Veluanus in a Book of his entituled Odegus Laicorum or the Lay-mans Guide published in the year 1554. and much commended by Henricus Antonides the Divinity Reader in the University of Franeker after whom followed in the same Opinions Iohannes Isbrandi who openly profess'd himself an Anti-Calvinian Clemens Martini who took his Principles from Hardinbergius one of the first Reformers of the Church of Embden Gellius Sueranus in West-Friesland who looked upon those of the other Perswasion as Innovators in that Church Holmanus the Divinity Reader in Leyden Cornelius Menardi a man of good esteem amongst them and generally all the Ministers successively in the Province of Vtrecht some of which had maintained these Doctrines before the birth of Iacob van Harmine better known in these later times by the name of Arminius and all of them before such time as any publick notice had been taken of him by which it seems that these Doctrines were of a long standing and had took deep rooting in these Churches though they had not gained such a large and general spreading over them as they after did For in the year 1603. the Learned Iunius one of the Professors for Divinity in the University of Leyden being then deceased the Curators or Overseers of that University made choice of this Van Harmine the Pastor as they phrase it of the Church of Amsterdam to succeed in his place But the Inhabitants of that Town amongst whom he had served in the Ministry for the space of 15. years and moâ—â— were so affected to the man that they would by no means yield unto his departure till over-ruled by the intreaties of some and the power of others A matter very unpleasing to the Rigid Calvinians informing against him to the State for several Heterodoxies repugnant to the received Doctrine of those Churches Arminius for six years before had by exchange of Letters betwixt him and Iunius maintained the Melancthonian Doctrines in those points of Controversie before remembred which Papers being dispersed abroad in several Copies but not published till after his death and then published by the name of Amica Collatio c. gave the Calvinians some fair Colour for their information But the business being heard at the Hague he was acquitted by his Judges dispatch'd for Leyden and there confirmed in his place
be challenged And when it was answered That there could be no reason to engage in such Disputations where no Moderator could be had The King replied That Charles should moderate between them and the opposite party At which when one of them seemed to smile upon the other the King proceeded and assured them that Charles should manage a point in Controversie with the best studied Divine of them all and that he had trained up George so far as to hold the Conclusion though he had not yet made him able to prove the Premises By which it seems that his Majesty conceived no such fear on the Princes part as that he could be practised or disputed out of his Religion and that he had no such fear of Buckingham neither but that he would be able to stand his ground notwithstanding any Arguments which were brought to move him And he that is so far confirmed as to stand his ground will never yield himself though he may be vanquished It was not then to be believed that me so principled and instructed as not to be forced out of their Religion should take such pains to be perverted or seduced upon worldly policies as well against their Science as against their Conscience Had they gone thither on that Errand what could have hindred them from putting the design in execution having in Spain sit opportunity to effect it at home the Kings Authority to confirm and Countenance it and the whole power of his Catholick Majesty which was offered more than once or twice to justifie and defend the misrule against all the world That they brought back the same Religion which they carried with them is a strong Argument to any man of Sense and Reason that they went not into Spain of purpose to betray it there Let us next look upon the proofs which are offered to us for Laud being privy to this journey whereof his being of Council to â—ervert the Prince and draw him to the Church of Rome there is no proof offered For first I find it charged that he wrote a Letter unto Buckingham on the fifth day after his departure and maintained a constant Correspondence with him when he was in Spain And secondly That he was privy to some Speeches which his Majesty had used to the Prince at his going hence His Majesty in some of his printed Books had maintained that the Pope was Antichrist and now he feared that this might be alledged against him in the Court of Rome to hinder the Popes Dispensation and obstruct the Marriage For the removal of which bar he commands the Prince to signifie if occasion were to all whom it might concern That his Majesty had writ nothing in that Point concludingly but by way of Argument That Laud was present at this Conference betwixt his Majesty and the Prince hath no proof at all He might be made acquainted with it on the post-fact when the Prince returned and yet because he was made acquainted with this passage though upon the post-fact it must be hence concluded as a matter certain That he was one of the Cabinet Council and privy to the Princes going into Spain and secondly as a matter probable That he suggested this distinction unto King James to please the Pope and promote the Match As little strength there is in the second proof touching his Writing to the Marquis on the fifth day after his departure But then it was not till the fifth before which time the Princes Journey into Spain was made the general Discourse of all Companies the ordinary Subject of all Tongues and Pens communicated by word of mouth by Letters and by what means not Nor can those following Letters which he received from Buckingham when he was in Spain convince him of being privy to that Journey when it was in project and design there being many others also who both received and dispatched Letters frequently from that very same person so far from being of the Council as to that particular that they were not of the Court at all So ordinary is the fate of such sorry Arguments to conclude nothing at all or that which is nothing to the purpose But what need more be said to confute this Calumny on which I have so long insisted than the great Care which was immediately taken by the King and his Bishops to maintain the Reputation of the Church of England in the Court of Spain No sooner had his Majesty notice that the Prince was come in safety to the Court of that King but order presently was taken for Officers of all Qualities and Servants of all sorts to be sent unto him that so he might appear in Publick with the greater lustre Nor was it the least part of his Royal Care to accommodate him with two such Chaplains as should be able to defend the Doctrine of this Church against all Opponents And that there might appear a face of the Church of England in the outward Forms of Worship also his Majesty was pleased by the Advice of the Bishops then about him of which Laud was one to give the said Chaplains Maw and Wren these Instructions following dated at Newmarket March 10. I. That there be one convenient Room appointed for Prayer the said Room to be employed during their abode to no other use II. That it be decently adorned Chappel-wise with an Altar Fonts Palls Linnen Coverings Demy-Carpet four Surplices Candlesticks Tapers Chalices Pattens a fine Towel for the Prince other Towels for the Houshold a Traverse of Waters for the Communion a Bason and Flaggons two Copes III. That Prayers be duly kept twice a day That all reverence be used by every one present being uncovered kneeling at due times standing up at the Creeds and Gospel bowing at the Name of JESUS IV. That the Communion be celebrated in due form with an Oblation of every Communicant and admixing Water with the Wine the Communion to be as often used as it shall please the Prince to set down smooth Wafers to be used for the Bread V. That in the Sermons there be no Polemical Preachings to inveigh against them or to confute them but only to confirm the Doctrine and Tenets of the Church of England by all positive Arguments either in Fundamental or Moral Points and especially to apply themselves in Moral Lessons to Preach Christ Jesus Crucified VI. That they give no occasions or rashly entertain any of Conference or Dispute for fear of dishonour to the Prince if upon any offence taken he should be required to send away any one of them but if the Lord Embassador or Mr. Secretary wish them to hear any that desire some information then they may safely do it VII That they carry the Articles of our Religion in many Copies the Books of Common Prayer in several Languages store of English Service-Books the Kings own Works in English and Latin Such were his Majesties Instructions to the said two Chaplains and being such they do concludingly demonstrate
persons as were either Papists or suspected to be Papists or had not received the Communion within the space of one whole year or whose Wives or any of their Servants were Recusants or suspected to be so might be removed from all Commissions of charge and trust from being Justices of the Peace or bearing any Office in the Common Wealth But this Petition was not made ready for the Lords till the twentieth of May next following and being then reported to them by the Archbishop of Canterbury they did proceed no further in it The Commons in the mean time had been wholly busied in the Prosecution of the Lord Treasurer Cranfield whom at last they brought unto his Sentence A Gentleman he was by birth but had his breeding in the City from whence by his own wit and industry he preferred himself into the Court where he was first made Master of the Wardrobe afterward Master of the Wards and finally advanced by the power and favour of the Duke one of whose Kinswomen he had married to the office of Lord Treasurer and the honour of being made the first Earl of Middlesex In this Office he had disobliged the Prince when he was in Spain by disswading and diverting those Large Supplies which were required for the maintaining of his Port in a Forraign Kingdom And he had disobliged the Duke by joyning in some secret practises to make him grow less and less in his Majesties Favour They had both served the turn of the Commons in drawing the King by their continual importunities to dissolve the Treatie And the Commons must now serve their turn in prosecuting this man to his final destruction Which they pursued so effectually that in the end he was sentenced in the House of Lords to be deprived of the Office of Lord High Treasurer of England to be fined fifty thousand Pounds and remain a Prisoner in the Tower during his Majesties will and pleasure It was moved also to degrade him from all Titles of honour but in that the Bishops stood his Friends and dasht the motion So Cranfield sell and Williams did not stand long after Laud was now brought into an higher degree of credit with the Duke of Buckingham than he was before by means whereof he came to be of great power and authority with him Insomuch that when the Duke fell sick of an Ague in the beginning of May he was extreme impatient in his Fits till Laud came to visit him by whom he was so charmed and sweetned that at first he endured his Fits with patience and by that patience did so break their heats and violences that at last they left him From this time forwards he was not used only as a Confessor but a Counsellor also imployed by him in considering and advising whether the great endowments belonging to the Hospitals founded in the dissolved house of Carthusian Monks commonly but corruptly called the Charter-House might not be inverted to the maintenance of an Army for the present Wars as well for his Majesties advantage as the case of the Subject And to this Proposition as it seems he returned a Negative for I find not that the business advanced any further He liked not any inversions or alienations of that nature lest being drawn into example the Lands of Colledges or Cathedral Churches might in like manner be imployed unto secular uses Besides he could not choose but know that a project had been set on foot about ten years before for the Entituling of the King to all Sutton's Lands which probably might have succeeded if Coke then being Lord Chief Justice and one of the Trustees for erecting the Hospital had not stood stoutly to his trust By which though he got the Kings displeasure yet amongst others he preserved the reputation of an honest man And Laud might very well conclude that he who durst oppose the King when he was in his favour would be found more intractable at this time when he was in disgrace which rendred him the less sollicitous to appear in a business not otherwise approved of by him But in another point which was more to his liking and lay within the spheare of his activity he gave him as much satisfaction as he had desired This was the giving him the heads of Doctrinal Puritanism that is to say the Heads of such Doctrines as were maintained by those of the Puritan Faction though not maintained by them as Puritans but as Calvinists only The Duke had a desire to know them and he served him in it I must needs say the name of Doctrinal Puritanism is not very ancient but whether first taken up by the Archbishop of Spalato at his being here I am not able to say Nor am I of opinion that Puritan and Calvinian are terms convertible For though all Puritans are Calvinians both in doctrine and practise yet all Calvinians are not to be counted as Puritans also whose practises many of them abhor and whose inconformities they detest though by the errour of their Education or ill direction in the Course of their Studies they may and do agree with them in some points of Doctrine But I must take the word as it stands in the Breviate and so let it go These Doctrinal heads being ten in number related to the indispâ—nsible morality of the Lords-day-Sabbath the indiscrimination of Bishops and Presbyters the Power of Soveraign Princes in Ecclesiastical matters the Doctrine of Confession and Sacerdotal Absolution and the five Points so much disputed about Predestination and the Concomitants thereof Which last Points having been hotly agitated for twenty years last past in the Belgick Churches did now begin to exercise the Church of England upon this occasion The Priests and Jesuites having been very busie of late in gaining Proselites and sowing their erronious Doctrines had got a haunt in a Village of the County of Essex called Stanford-Rivers The Rector of that Church was Richard Montague Batchelor of Divinity Prebend of Windsor and one of the Fellows of Eaton Colledge a man exceedingly well versed in all the Learning of Greeks and Romans and as well studied in the Fathers Councils and all other ancient Monuments of the Christian Church Desirous to free his Parish from this haunt he left some Propositions at the house of one of his Neighbours which had been frequently visited with these Night-Spirits with this Declaration thereunto that if any of those which ranged that walk could convince him in any of the same he would immediately subscribe and be a Papist After long expectation instead of answering to his queries one of them leaves a short Pamphlet for him entituled A new Gag for the Old Gospell in which it was pretended that the Doctrine of the Protestants should be confuted out of the very words of their own English Bibles This book he was required to answer and found it no such knotty piece but that it might be cleft in sunder without Beetle or Wedges But in perusing of that
book he found that besides some few Doctrines which properly and truly did belong to the Church of England there were crouded into it all Points of Calvinism such Heterodoxies and out-landish Fancies as the Church of England never owned And therefore in his Answer to that Popish Gagger he severed or discriminated the opinions of particular men from the Authorized Doctrines of this Church leaving the one to be maintained by their private Fautors and only defending and maintaining the other And certainly had he not been a man of a mighty Spirit and one that easily could contemn the cry and clamours which were raised against him for so doing he could not but have sunk remedilesly under the burden of disgrace and the fears of Ruine which that performance drew upon him This Book came out about the latter end of December and coming out made such a general amazement amongst those of the Calvinian Party that they began to fear the sad consequents of it The opening of this secret was of such importance that if the Author and his Book were not speedily crushed they must no longer shroud their private opinions under the name of the received Doctrine of the Church of England excluded from that Sanctuary they could find no place of strength and saâ—ety in which they should not be exposed to assaults and dangers And that the Author and the Book might be crusht together it was thought fit that Yates and Ward two of the Lecturers or Preachers in Ipswich should gather out of his Book some especial Points tending to Popery and Arminianism as they conceived to be presented to the Censure of the following Parliament Having got a Copy of the Information intended to be made against him he flies for refuge to King Iames now grown more moderate and since the death of Mountague the late Bishop of Winton into a better liking of those opinions which he had laboured to condemn at the Synod of Dort His Majesty knew the man and his great abilities and was well pleased with his performance against the History of Tithes where he had beaten the then thought matchless Selden at his own weapon and shewed himself the greater Philologer of the two Upon which ground he looked upon him as the fittest man to encounter Baronius against whom the right learned Casanbon had some preparatory velitations before his death but made no further progress in it Mountague flying to King Iames as before is said had presently his discharge or quietus est as to his Majesties good opinion both of him and the book it self And more than so his Majesty took notice that the Information was divulged and the Clamor violent and therefore gave him leave to make an Appeal from the said Defamers unto his own mosâ— Sacred Cognizance in publick and to represent his just defence against their slanders and false surmises unto the world And that the queaziness of the times might the better brook it he gave express order unto Dr. White then Dean of Carlile cried up when Lecturer of St. Pauls for the stoutesâ— Champion of this Church against those of Rome for the authorizing and publishing thereof which was done accordingly This Book he entituled by the name of APPELLO CAESAREM or a just APPEAL from two unjust INFORMERS But the King dying before it was finished at the Press it was presented to King Charles in the first entrance of his Reign and there we shall be sure to hear further of it In the mean time it may not be unnecessary to enquire what the said Informers Yates and Ward might and did mean by Popery and Arminianism with which two crimes they charged the Answer to the Gagger And first we find upon due search That by Popery they understood all such Points of Doctrine as being determined by this Church hold some correspondence and agreement with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome or being not determined by this Church are left at liberty for every man to please himself in his own opinion how hear soever he may come to such compliance Of the first sort they reckoned for points of Popery The Doctrine of the Perpetual Visibility of the Church of Christ The Local Descent of Christ into Hell The Lawfulness of Images Signing with the Sign of the Cross Confession and Sacerdotal Absolution The Real Presence The Reward of Good Works The Sacrament of Orders quarrelling even with very words Sacrifice Altar and the like All which upon a perfect Examination will be found to be the genuine Doctrines and to speak nothing but the Language of the Church of England as we have punctually discovered in our Introduction Amongst the last I reckon the Disputes concerning Evangelical Counsels Antichrist and Limbus Patrum of which the Church of Englâ—nd hath determined nothing and therefore the Appellant was left at liberty to follow his own Judgment and to chuse what guides he pleased to direct his Judgment in those particular Debates Yet such was the temper of those Times that whosoever held any of the Points aforesaid or any other controverted with the Church of Rome contrary to the sense of Calvin must presently be accused of Popery He that adhered unto the Tendries of the Ancient Fathers in such particulars as the Church was pleased to leave undetermined or bound himself in matters publickly resolved on to vindicate this Church to her genuine Tenents was presently made Subject to all those Clamors and Reproaches which the Tongues and Pens of that Predominating Faction could either raise upon him or asperse him with Laud had found good experience of it when he lived in Oxon. and so had Houson and Corbet too as before was noted But none of them were able to break through those difficulties till Mountague took the Work in hand who being well back'd and having the Ice somewhat broke before him waded with confidence and courage through the middest of those Waters which otherwise might have overwhelmed the most tried Adventurer In the next place it will be no hard work to finde what they meant by Arminianism under which name they comprehend the Melancthonian Doctrine of Predestination The Vniversal Redemption of Mankind by the Death of Christ The cooperation of the Will of Man with the Grace of God and The Possibility of falling from Grace received All which appear by plain and evident proofs in our said Introduction to have been the true original and native Doctrines of this Church at her first Reformation But Calvinism had so overspread the face of this Church by Humphries long sitting in the Chair at Oxon. and the discountenancing of Peter Baro at Cambridge that the natural Doctrines and Determinations of it were either so forgotten that they were not known or else so overpowred that none durst undertake to own them And so it stood till thâ— breaking out of the Predestinarian Quarrels in the Belgick Churches between Arminius and his Followers on the one side and the Rigid Calvinians on the other
The Books which had been written on both sides being purposely dispersed abroad to encourage and encrease their several Parties cross'd over the Seas into England also where being diligently studied either out of curiosity or desire of Knowledge they awaked many out of that dead sleep in which they were to look with better eyes into the true and native Doctrines of this Church than before they did Amongst the first which publikly appeared that way at Oxon. after the coming out of the said Books were Laud and Houson whom Abbot then Doctor of the Chair and Vice-chancellor also exposed to as much disgrace as by his Place and Power he could lay upon them Amongst the first at Cambridge were Tompson a Dutchman by original if I be not mistaken in tâ—e man and Richardson the Master of Trinity Colledge The first of these had writ a Book touching Falling away from Grace entituled De Intercisione Gratiae Iustificationis to which Abbot of Oxon. above-mentioned returned an Answer The other being a corpulent man was publickly reproach'd in S. Maries Pulpit in his own University by the name of a Fat-bellied Arminian By that name they were called in Holland which adhered not unto Calvin's Doctrine though many had formerly maintained these Opinions in those Churches before van Harmine came to the Chair of Leyden And by that name they must be called in England also though the same Doctrines had been here publickly Authorised and Taught before he was born So that the entitling of these Doctrines to the name of Arminius seems to be like the nominating of the great Western Continent by the name of America of which first Christopher Columbus and afterwards the two Cabots Father and Son had made many great and notable Discoveries before Americus Vestputius ever saw those Shores Howsoever these Doctrines must be called by the name of Arminianism and by that name Mountague stands accused by the two Informers though he protests in his Appeal That he had never seen any of the Writings of Arminius and that he did no otherwise maintain those Doctrines than as they were commended to him by the Church of England and justified by the unanimous Consent of the Ancient Fathers But of this man and the pursuance of these Quarrels we shall hear more shortly These matters being thus laid together let us look back on some former Passages which preceded Mountagues Disputes The Commons had obtained their ends in dissolving all Treaties with the King of Spain but lost their hopes of Marrying the Prince to a Lady of their own Religion His Majesty would not look beneath a Crown to finde a Marriage for his Son and no Crown could afford him a better Wife for his Son than a Daughter of France The Prince had seen the Lady at the Court in Paris and the King as much desired to see her in the Court of England Upon this ground the Earl of Holland is dispatch'd privately into France to see how the Queen-Mother and her Ministers who then Governed the Affairs of that King would approve the Match to which at first they seemed so chearâ—ully inclined that they did not seem to stand upon any Conditions But no sooner had they found that the Breach between his Majesty and the King of Spain was grown irreparable and that both sides prepared for War but they knew how to make their best advantage of it They thought themselves to be every way as considerable as the Spaniards were and would abate nothing of those Terms which had been obtained by the Spaniards in reference either to the Princess her self or in favour of the English Catholicks And to these Terms when they saw no better could be gotten his Majesty and the Prince consented But such a Spirit of Infatuation was at that time upon the People that they who on the 23d of February before had celebrated the Dissolving of the Treaties with Spain with Bâ—lls and Bonfires on the 21st of November following did celebrate with like Solemnities and Expressions the like Match with France And in this Match Laud is accused to have a hand or at the least to have shew'd his good affections to promote it An heavy Crime and proved by as infallible proofs that is to say his writing to and receiving Letters from the Duke at such time as the Duke was sent to the Court of France to attend the new Queen into England And what else could this Match and those Letters aim at but to carry on the same design to bring in Popery and by that means to stand their ground and retain all those Priviledges and Immunities which the Popish Party had procured by the former Treaties To such absurdities are men sway'd when Prejudice and Prepossessions over-rule the Balance We must begin the next year with the Death of King Iames and therefore think it not amiss to take a brief view of the Condition of the Church and State at the time of his departing from us He had spent all his life in Peace but died in the beginning of a War A War which had been drawn upon him by dissolving the Treaties to which he was as it were constrained by the continual importunity of the Prince and the Duke of Buckingham The Duke knew well that he could not do a more popular act than to gratifie the Commons in that business and had easily possess'd the Prince with this opinion That as his future Greatness must be built on the Love of his People so nothing could oblige them more than to be instrumental in dissolving the present Treaties But herein they consulted rather their own private Passions than the publick Interest of the Crown and they shall both pay dear enough for it in a very short space For there is nothing more unsafe for a King of England than to cast himself upon the necessity of calling Parliaments and depending on the Purse of the Subject by means whereof he makes himself obnoxious to the humour of any prevailing Member in the House of Commons and becomes less in Reputation both at home and abroad The Church he left beleaguer'd by two great Enemies assaulted openly by the Papist on the one side undermined by the Puritans on the other Of the audaciousness of the Papists we have spoke already abated somewhat by the Fall at Black-friers more by the dissolving the two Treaties about four Months after For though they made some use of the French by this new Alliance yet they resolved to fasten no dependance upon that Crown insomuch that many of those who greedily embraced such Favours as were obtained for them by the Treaties with the King of Spain would not accept the same when they were procured by the Match with France for which being asked the Reason they returned this Answer That they would not change an old Friend for a new of the continuance of whose Favours they could have no certainty and who by suffering Hereticks in his own Dominions declared
the Parliament and Convocation were admitted to the kiss of her hand whom she most graciously received For on the Saturday before being Iune the eighteenth the Parliament had took beginning Which fell out not unseasonably that the French Lords might see with what Royal Magnificence he was attended by the Prelates Peers and other Officers of State besides his own Domestick Servants to the Parliament House At their first meeting he put them in mind of the War in which they had engaged his Father and of the promise they had made to stand to him in it with their lives and fortunes That both his Land and Sea Forces were now in readiness to set forwards And That there wanted nothing but a present supply of money to quicken and expedite the affaire That the eyes of all Christendom were fixt upon him And that if he should miscarry in his first attempt it would blemish all the honour of his future actions And therefore That they should endeavour to deliver him out of that War in which they had incumbred he hoped it would never be said that they had betrayed him In answer whereunto the Commons past a Bill of two Subsidies only so short of that excessive charge which the maintenance of so great a Fleet and Army required at their hands that being distributed amongst the Officers Souldiers and Mariners it would scarce have served for Advance-money to send them going Which notwithstanding he very graciously accepted of it taking it as an earnest of their good affections in reference to the greater Sums which were to follow In order whereunto he audited his account unto them as well for such moneys as had remained undisbursed of the former aides as for the defraying of such further Charges as his present Fleet consisting of 120 Sail and a considerable Land Army must needs lay upon him The particulars of which account stood thus viz. 32000 pounds for securing of Ireland 47000 pounds for strengthning the Forts 37000 pounds for the repair of the Navy 99000 pounds upon the four English Regiments in the States Country 62000 pounds laid out for Count Mansfield Totall 287000 pounds Besides which he sent in a demand of 200000 pounds and upwards upon the Navy 48000 pounds upon the Ordnance 45000 pounds in Charges of the Land men 20000 pounds a month to Count Mansfield and 46000 pounds to bring down the King of Denmarke the totall of which latter Sum amounts to 339000 pounds Both Sums make no less than 626000 pounds to which the Grant of two Subsidies holds but small proportion But the Commons had other game to follow Their Grievances must first be heard A List whereof they had presented to King IAMES toward the end of the former Parliament of which the greatest part were still unredressed To these his Majesty vouchsafed a very gracious and for the most part a full and satisfactory Answer Amongst which Grievances a sober and discreet man would not think to find that the building of all houses in London and the parts adjoyning in one uniform way with a face of brick toward the streets should be passed for one then which there could not be a greater ornament to that City or a greater honour to his Majesties Government And to that his Majesty returned this Answer That there had much good come by such a reformation of Building in his Fathers time and therefore that he was resolved to go on with the work Which Resolution so much tending to the glory of the English Nation and no objection being ready for his other Answers the matter of Grievances could no longer be insisted on especially in such a time when the concernments of the State his Majesties honour and all the motives which induced them to ingage him in this present War ought in all reason to precede their Grievances had they been greater than they were But then they had some Religious Grievances which required a more speedy redress than any which concerned them in their Civil Interesses The Lords day was pretended to be much profaned by unlawful pastimes and People frequently resorted out of their own Parishes to feast in Revels Of this a remedy is desired by Act of Parliament Had any such Bill been offered in King Iames his time it would have found a sorry welcome but this King being under a necessity of compliance with them resolved to grant them their desires in that Particular to the end that they might grant his also in the aide required when that obstruction was removed The Sabbatarians took the benefit of this opportunity for the obtaining of this grant the first that ever they obtained by all their struglings which of what consequence it was we shall see hereafter But then the Doctrine of the Church was more in danger than ever In former Parliaments they were afraid of the Papists only But now there was as much danger to be feared from Arminianism as before from Popery An Information had been made by Yales and Ward as before is said against some passages in Mountagues Answer to the Romish Gagger and he had agravated his offence by justifying all his Popish and Arminian Tenents in a book newly published called Appello Caesarem It could not be denied but that this book was Licenced by Dr. White then Dean of Carlile by whom it was affirmed to be agreeable to the Publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England But White they said was now turned black and what is the Established Doctrine of the Church of England compared with Calvins Doctrine in his Institutions What Trifles are the Articles of Religion agreed on by the Bishops and Clergy in two several Synods held in London compared with the determinations of the Synod of Dort which Mountague that bold man had despised and vilified This was a matter which became the care of the House of Commons and Mountague is cited to appear before them on the seventh of Iuly Being brought unto the Bar the Speaker declared to him the pleasure of the House which was that they would refer his Censure to the next meeting and that in the interim he should stand committed to the Serjeants Ward and entred baile for his appearance to the value of two thousand pound His Majesty had present notice of this occurrence And being very sensible of this new incroachment he thereupon caused intimation to be made unto them that he was not pleased with their proceedings against Mountague being one of his Chaplains adding withall that he conceived his Servants to be as capable of protection from all imprisonments and arrests as any of the Servants of the Knights and Burgesses It was not long before Laud found an opportunity to give Mountague notice of his Majesties great care of him and affection to him Which must needs be a Soveraign Cordial to the man notwithstanding that the Commons were so stiff in their Rigors toward him that his bail-bond of 2000 pound did remain uncancelled Notice
supposed it makes exceedingly to the honour and commendation of this our Bishop as well in point of Secrecy as unfeigned Fidelity that his Majesty should pick out him from all other men to be his Pen-man or Chief Secretary in such weighty businesses Then again it is affirmed That he not only corrected and amended the Dukes Answer to the Impeachment which was made against him by the Commons but that he also penned that Speech which the Duke subjoined unto his Answer A Crime of the same nature and proved by the same Mediums as the others was and such as rather might have served for a strong assurance both of his honest Fidelity to his Friend and Patron and the even temper of his own mind in the managing of it For if we may believe the Author of the first History of the Life and Reign of King Charles as I think we may this Answer of the Duke was so in-laid with Modesty and Humility that it became a new Grievance to his Adversaries and was like to have a powerful influence toward the conversion of many who expected a Defence of another and more disdainful Spirit Thus have we brought two Parliaments unto an end but we hear nothing of the Convocations which were summoned with them Nothing indeed of the first Convocation but the passing of a Grant for three Subsidies toward the Advancement of his Majesties Service In the second we find something more though no Subsidies are granted in it On the fifth Sunday in Lent Goodman then Bishop of Glocester preach'd before his Majesty and press'd so hard upon the Point of the Real Presence that he was supposed to trench too neer the borders of Popery which raised a great clamour both in Court and Country The matter of which Sermon was agitated pro and con in the Convocation March 29. without determining any thing on either side But his Majestie out of a desire to satisfie both himself and his Houses of Parliament touching that particular referred the consideration of it to Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Andrews Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of St. Davids who meeting and considering of it on the twelfth of April returned this Answer to the King That some things in that Sermon had been spoke less warily but nothing falsly That nothing had been innovated by him in the Doctrine of the Church of England But howsoever That they thought very fit that Goodman should be appointed to Preach again before his Majesty for the better explaining of his meaning and shewing how and in what Particulars he had been mistaken by his Auditors Which he accordingly performed But nothing was of such concernment to a Convocation as the cause of Mountague vexed and molested by the Commons in both the Parliaments for supposed Popery and Arminianism matters meerly Doctrinal And possibly it may be admired that they should do nothing in a matter of their own peculiar having his Majesty to Friend for it appears in the Letter of the three Bishops before-mentioned to the Duke of Buckingham That his Majesty had taken that business into his own care and had most worthily referred it in a right course to Church-consideration And it appears also by the Breviate pag. 8. That on Sunday April 22. of this present year his Majesty had commanded all the Bishops to come before him and reprehended such as came being fourteen in number for being silent in Causes which concerned the Church and had not made known unto him what might be profitable or unprofitable for it the Cause whereof he was so ready to promote But then we are to call to mind that Laud not long since had been sent by the Duke of Buckingham to consult with Andrews and learn of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of the Church and more especially in the Five Articles so hotly agitated between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces And it appears by the event That Andrews did not hold it fit for any thing to be done in that particular as the case then stood the truth in those Opinions not being so generally entertained amongst the Clergy nor the Archbishop and the greater part of the Prelates so inclinable to them as to venture the determining of those Points to a Convocation But that which was not thought fit in that present Conjuncture for a Convocation his Majesty was pleased to take order in by his Royal Edict Many Books had been written against Mountague by Carleton Bishop of Chichester Sutcliffe Dean of Exeter Yates and Rouse by which the differences were rather increased than diminished Which coming to his Majesties notice it pleased him by the Advice of his Bishops to signifie by his Proclamation of Iune 14. Not only to his own People but to all the World his utter dislike of all those who to shew the subtilty of their Wits or to please their own Humours or vent their own Passions do or shall adventure to stir or move any new Opinions not only contrary but differing from the sound and Orthodoxal Grounds of the true Religion sincerely Professed and happily Established in the Church of England and also to declare his full and constant Resolution That neither in matter of Doctrine nor Discipline of the Church nor in the Government of the State he will admit of the least Innovation but by Gods assistance will so guide the Scepter of these his Kingdoms and Dominions by the Divine Providence put into his hand as shall be for the comfort and assurance of his sober Religious and well-affected Subjects and for the repressing and severe punishing of such as out of any sinister respects or disaffection to his Person or Government shall dare either in Church or State to distract or disquiet the Peace thereof His Majesty thereupon commands all his Subjects the Clergy most especially both in England and Ireland That from thenceforth they should carry themselves so wisely warily and conscionably that neither by Writing Preaching Printing Conferences or otherwise they raise any doubts or publish or maintain any new Inventions or Opinions concerning Religion than such as are clearly grounded and warranted by the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England heretofore published and happily established by Authority Straightly charging all Archbishops and Bishops in their several Diocesses as also all Counsellors of State Judges and Ministers of Justice speedily to reclaim and repress all such Spirits as shall adventure hereafter to break this Rule of Sobriety and due Obedience to his Majesty his Laws and this Religious Duty to the Church of God or in the least degree attempt to violate this bond of Peace adding withal this intimation of his Royal Pleasure That whosoever from thenceforth should take the boldness wilfully to neglect this his Majesties gracious Admonition and either for the satisfying of their unquiet and restless Spirits or for expressing of their rash and undutiful Insolencies should wilfully break that
mature deliberation and with the Advice of so many of Our Bishops as might conveniently be called together thought fit to make this Declaration following That the Articles of the Church of England which had been allowed and authorized heretofore and which Our Clergy generally have subscribed unto do contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods Word which We do therefore ratifie and confirm requiring all Our loving Subjects to continue in the Vniform Profession thereof and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles which to that end We command to be reprinted and this Our Declaration to be published therewith That We are Supreme Governour of the Church of England and that if any difference arise about the External Policie concerning Injunctions Canons or other Constitutions whatsoever thereunto belonging the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them having first obtained leave under Our Broad Seal so to do And We approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions providing that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land That out of Our Princely care that the Church-men may do the work which is proper unto them the Bishops and Clergie from time to time in Convocation upon their humble desire shall have licence under Our Broad Seal to deliberate of and to do all such things as being made plain by them and assented by Vs shall concern the settled continuance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England established from which We shall not endure any variation or departing in the least degree That for the present though some differences have been ill raised We take comfort in this that all Clergie-men within Our Realm have alwaies most willingly subscribed to the Articles established which is an Argument to Vs that they all agree in the true usual literal meaning of the said Articles and that even in those curious Points in which the present differences lye men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them which is an argument again that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differences which have for many hundred years in different times and places exercised the Church of Christ We will that all further curious search be laid aside and these disputes be shut up in Gods Promises as they be generally set forth unto Vs in holy Scriptures and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them And that no man hereafter shall either Print or Preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof And shall not put his own sense or Coment to be the meaning of the Article but shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense That if any Publick Reader in either Our Vniversities or any Head or Master of a Colledge or any other person respectively in either of them shall affix any new sense to any Article or shall publickly read determine or hold any publick Disputation or suffer any such to be held either way in either the Vniversities or Colledges respectively or if any Divine in the Vniversities shall Preach or Print any thing either way other than is established in Convocation with Our Royal Assent He or they the Offenders shall be liable to Our displeasure and the Churches Censure in Our Commission Ecclesiastical as well as any other and We will see there shall be due execution upon them No sooner were the Articles published with this Declaration but infinite were the clamours which were raised against it by those of the Calvinian Party Many exclaimed against it for the depths of Satan some for a Iesuitical Plot to subvert the Gospel For what else could it aim at as they gave it out but under colour of silencing the disputes on either side to give incouragement and opportunity to Arminians here to sow their tears and propagate their erroneous Doctrines And what effects could it produce but the suppressing of all Orthodox Books the discouraging of all godly and painful Ministers thereby deteâ—red from preaching the most comfortable Doctrines of mans election unto life The Arminians in the mean time gathering strength and going on securely to the end they aimed at And to give the better colour to these suspitions a Letter is dispersed abroad pretended to be written to the Rector of the Jesuites in Bruxells the chief City of Brabant In which the Writers lets him know with what care and cunning they had planted â—ere that Soveraign drug Arminianism which they hoped would purge the Protestants from their Heresies and that it begin to flourish and bear fruit already That for the better preventing of the Puritans the Arminians had lockt up the Dukes ears c. with much of the like impudent stuff which no sober man did otherwise look on than a piece of Gullery Upon which grounds a Petition was designed for his Sacred Majesty by some of the Calvinian Party in and about the City of London For the revoking of the said Declaration by which they were deterred as the matter was handled from preaching the saving Doctrines of Gods Free Grace in Election and Predestination And this say they had brought them into a very great straight either or incurring Gods heavy displeasure if they did not faithfully discharge their Embassage in declaring the whole Counsel of God or the danger of being censured as violaters of his Majesties said Act if they preacht those constant Doctrines of our Church and confuted the opposite Pelagian and Arminian Heresies both preached and Printed boldly without fear of censure And thereupon they pray on their bended knees that his gracious Majesty would take into his Princely consideration the forenamed Evils and Grievances under which they groaned and as a wise Physician prescribe and apply such speedy Remedies as may both cure the present Maladies and secure the peace of Church and Common-wealth from all those Plagues which their Neighbours had not a little felt and more may fear if the Council of his Majesties Father to the States of the United Provinces were not better followed But this Petition being stopt before it came to the King they found more countenance from the Commons in the next Parliamentary meeting than they were like to have found at the hands of his Majesty For the Commons conceiving they had power to declare Religion as well as Law and they had much alike in both they voted this Anti-Declaration to be published in the name of that House viz. We the Commons now assembled in Parliament do claim profess and avow for truth the sense of the Articles of Religion which were established in Parliament the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth which by the publick Acts of the Church of England and the general and currant exposition of the Writers of our Church have been delivered to us and we
against the like Instructions in the time of King Iames and the late Declaration published by the King reigning For what less could be aimed at in them than suppressing the Divine Ordinance of Preaching or at the least a dreadful diminution of the number of Sermons And what could follow thereupon but negligence in the Priests ignorance in the People Popery and Superstition in the mean time gaining ground on both Spending the afternoons in teaching the Catechism was a work fitter for a Pedagogue than a preaching Minister who rather were ordained to provide strong meats for men than milk for babes and yet such was the strictness of the said Instructions in looking to the observance of the late Declaration that they were not suffered to set strong meats before the people though men of ripe years and somewhat more than children in their understandings Preaching must be restrained hereafter to Gods Will revealed to Faith in Christ and Moral duties toward God and men but as for his secret Will and Purpose in the unfathomable depths of Predestination those must be kept sealed up under lock and key and none but the Arminians have the opening of them And yet the grief had been the less if Lecturers had been left to their former liberty and not tied up to Gown and Surplice or fettered with Parochial cures and consequently with Subscriptions and Canonical Oaths badges of Antichrist and professed enemies to the pure Freedom of the Gospel Where might a man repair with comfort to hear Gods Word preached in truth and simplicity the Sacraments administred in their original nakedness to hear Christ speaking in his Prophets and the Prophets speaking to the People if this world went on But notwithstanding these secret Murmurs on the one side and the open Clamours of the other Laud was resolved to do his duty who summoning all the Ministers and Lecturers about the City of London to appear before him made a solemn Speech in which he pressed the necessity of his Majesties said Instructions for the good of the Church and of their chearful obedience to them He directed Letters also to every Archdeacon in his Diocess requiring them to see them published to all the Clergy and to give him an exact account at the end of their Visitations how they were observed especially insisting on the third Instruction For keeping the Kings Declaration that so the differences and disputes in those prohibited points might be laid aside The like care taken also by the rest of the Bishops but slackning by degrees when the heat was over and possibly in short time after they had not been looked into at all if Abbot had continued longer in the See of Canterbury or that his Majesty had not enjoyned the Bishops to give him an exact account of their proceedings in the said particulars not once for all but Annually once in every year on the second of Ianuary Which care being taken for the peace and happiness of the Church of England we will lay hold upon this opportunity for crossing over into Ireland and taking a short view of the state of Religion in that Country which from henceforth shall be lookt into more than hath been formerly Concerning which we are to know that when the Reformation was advanced in the Church of England the first care was to let the people have the Bible the publick Liturgie and certain godly Homilies in the English tongue as appeareth by the Statutes 2 3. Edw. vi 5 6. Edw. vi and 1 Eliz. Secondly The like care was taken of the Welch For whose Instruction it was further ordered partly by the Queen and partly by Act of Parliament in the fifth of her Reign that as well the Bible as the Common-Prayer Book should be Translated Printed and Published in that Language one Book of each sort to be provided for every several Church at the Charge of the Parish Which being Printed at the first in the large Church-Volume was afterwards reduced to a more portable bulk for Domestical uses by the cost and charge of Rowland Heylyn Citizen and Alderman of London about the beginning of the Reign of this King But for Ireland no such care was taken The Acts of the Supremacy and of the Consecrations of Archbishops and Bishops were received there as before in England the English Liturgie imposed on them by order from hence and confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Which notwithstanding not only the Kernes or natural wild Irish but many of the better sort of the Nation either remain in their old barbarous ignorance or else adhere unto the Pope or finally to their own superstitious fancies as in former times And to say truth it is no wonder that they should there being no care taken to instruct them in the Protestant Religion either by translating the Bible or the English Liturgy into their own Language as was done in Wales but forcing them to come to the English Service which they understood no more than they did the Mass. By means whereof the Irish are not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrine and Devotions of the Church of England but those of Rome are furnished with an excellent argument for having the Service of the Church in a Language which the Common people understand not And though somewhat may be pleaded in excuse thereof during the unquietness of that Kingdom under Queen Elizabeth who had the least part of it in her possession yet no sufficient plea can be made in defence of it for the time succeeding when the whole Country was reduced and every part thereof lay open to the course of Justice So that I cannot look upon it without great amazâ—mâ—nt that none of the Bishops of that Church should take care herein or recommend the miserable condition of that people to tâ—e Court of England Now as Popery continued by this means in the Realm of Ireland so Calvinism was as strongly rooted in that part thereof which professed the Doctrine and Religion of the Church of England And touching this we are to know also that the Calvinian Doctrines being propagated in both Universities by such Divines as lived in exile in Queen Maries time one Peter Baroe a Frenchman obtained to be the Lady Margarets Professor in the Divinity Scâ—ools at Cambridge This man approving better the Melancthonian Doctriâ—â— of Predestination than that of Calvin publickly taught it in tâ—ose Schools and gained in short time very many followers Whitaker was at that time her Majesties Professor for Divinity there and Perkins at the same time was of no small note both Calvinists in these points of Doctrine and both of them supralapsarians also Betwixt these men and Baroe there grew some disputes which afterwards begat some heats and those heats brake out at last into open Factions Hereupon Whitaker Perkins Chaderton and others of the same opinion thought it expedient to effect that by power which they were not able to obtain by Argument And to that end
Preoccupate the most Reverend Archbishop Whitgift with most sad complaints touching the Rupture made by Baroe in that Vniversity For remedy whereof the Archbishop calls unto him Fletcher the Lord Elect of London Vaughan the Lord Elect of Bangor Tyndal Dean of Ely and such Divines as came from Cambridge who meeting at his house in Lambeth on the twenty sixth day of November Anno 1595. did then and there conclude upon certain Articles for regulating disputations in those points of Controversie Which Articles being nine in number are these that follow I. God from all eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobated II. The moving or efficient cause of Predestination unto life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of God-works or of any thing that is in the person predestinated but only the good will and pleasure of God III. There is predetermined a certain number of the Predestinate which can either be augmented or diminished IV. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins V. A true living and justifying faith and the Spirit of God justifying is not extinguished falleth not away it vanisheth not away in the Act either finally or totally VI. A man truly faithful that is such a one who is enduced with a justifying Faith is certain with the full assurance of faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. VII Saving grace is not given is not granted is not communicated to all men by which they may be saved if they will VIII No man can come unto Christ unless it shall be given unto him and unless the Father shall draw him and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son IX It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved These Articles being brought to Cambridge so discouraged Baroe that when the ordinary time of his publick readings was expired he forsook that place and not many years after died in London His Funerall being attended by order from Bishop Bancroft by most of the Eminent Divines about that City which shews that both the Bishop and the most eminent Divines of London were either inclinable to his opinions or not so averse from them as not to give a solemn attendance at the time of his Funeral The news of which proceedings being brought to the Queen she was excâ—edingly offended conceiving it a deep intrenchment upon her Prerogative that any such Declaration should be made in matter of Religion without her Authority Once was she at a point to have them all indited of a Praemunire but the high esteem she had of Whitgift whom she commonly called her black husband reprieved all the rest from the danger of it Howsoever such a strict course was taken for suppressing the said Articles that a Copy of them was not to be found in Cambridge for a long time aâ—ter though after the Queens death they began to peep abroad again and became more publick Nor was King Iames better conceited of them than Queen Elizabeth was for when it was moved by Dr Reynolds at Hampton Court that the nine Orthodoxal Assertions as he pleased to call them which were concluded on at Lambeth might be admitted into the confession of the Church of England the King so much disliked the motion that it was presently rejected without more ado But that which the Calvinians could not get in England they effected at the last in Ireland where the true and genuine Doctrines of the Church of England had been less looked after than at home For in the year 1615. a Parliament and Convocation being holden in Dublin it was resolved on by the Archbishop Bishops and the rest of the Clergy then assembled that a Book of Articles should be framed to be the Publick Confession of that Church for succeeding times the drawing up whereof was committed to Doctor Iames Vsher afterwards Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland a Rigid Calvinist but otherwise the ablest Scholar of that Nation And he accordingly fashioning the Doctrine for that Church by his own Conceptions inserted into the said Book of Articles the nine Conclusions made at Lambeth to be the standing Rule as he thought and hoped of that Church for ever And yet they did not stay there neither The Sabbatarian Doctrines had been broached by Bownd in the same year wherein the nine Articles had been made at Lambeth Which being opposed by Archbishop Whitgift and never admitted in this Church were by the cunning of that Faction and the zeal or diligence of this man incorporated into the Body of the Articles for the Church of Ireland in which it is declared for a Doctrinal Point That the first day of the Week which is the Lords-day is wholly to be dedicated to the Service of God and therefore we are Bound therein to rest from our common and daily Business and to bestow that leisure upon holy Exercises both Publick and Private And because he concluded in himself that the Pope was Antichrist that also must be made an Article of this Confession in which we find it in these words viz. The Bishop of Rome is so far from being the Supream Head of the Vniversal Church that his Works and Doctrines do plainly discover him to be the Man of Sin foretold in the Holy Scripture whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and abolish with the brightness of his coming And hereunto That the Plantation of the Scots in Vlster unhappily projected in the time of King Iames brought in so much Puritanism such a contempt of Bishops such a neglect of the Publick Liturgie and other Divine Offices of this Church that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England The Papists in the mean time encreasing more and more grew at the last to so great a confidence by the clashings here in England betwixt the King and his Parliaments that they gave themselves great hope of a Toleration And possibly enough they might have obtained somewhat like it if the Irish Bishops had not joined together in a Protestation to the contrary and caused it to be published in the Pulpit by the Bishop of Derry with infinite Acclamations of the Protestant Hearers Howsoever the lost hopes had so far emboldened them that they set up some Religious Houses even in Dublin it self shewed themselves openly in their Friars Habits and publickly affronted not only the Mayor but the Archbishop of that City This coming to his Majesties knowledge he caused his pleasure to be signified to the Lords of his Council That Order should be taken there That the House where the said Seminary Friars appeared in their Habits and wherein the Reverend Archbishop and the Mayor of Dublin received their first Affront be speedily demolished and be the Mark of Terrour to
not the name of the other when it came to his turn The Ships being come and staying for a change of wind the like curtesie was desired of Pennington Admiral of that little Fleet for the present Service Pennington told them that he had no Chaplain that there was in the Ship one Dr. Ambrose his Friend and Kinsman who had borne him company in that Voyage and that he doubted not but that he would readily hearken to them if they made the motion The motion being made and granted Ambrose attends his Admiral to the place of Exercise where he took up his stand very near the Pulpit The Congregation being filled and the Psalm half done a Deacon is sent to put him in mind of going into the Pulpit of whom he desires to be accommodated with a Bible and a Common-Prayer Book The Deacon offered him a Bible but told him that they had no such thing as a Common-Prayer Book and that the Common Prayers were not used amongst them Why then said Ambrose the best is that I have one of my own which being presently taken out of his pocket he began with the Sentences and invitation and was scarce entred into the Confession when all the Church was in an uprore The Elders thereupon in a great amaze sent back the Deacon to desire him to go into the Pulpit and not to trouble them with that which they were not used to Ambrose replied That if they were an English Church they were obliged to serve God by the English Liturgie and that if they would have no Prayers they should have no Sermon and so proceeded on with the rest of the Liturgy which Message being delivered to the Elders the Deacon was sent back the third time requiring him to desist from that unnecessary Service On the receiving of which Message he puts the book into his pocket and goes out of the Church the two Embassadours following him and the Admiral them to the great honour of himself and the confusion of Iohnson from whose mouth I received the story and the other Chaplain being thus shewed their errour in not doing the like That our Bishop was ever made acquainted by the said Iohnson with this passage I am not able to say but whether he were or not he had too much ground for what he did in offering to their Lordships his considerations for regulating Divine Service in that and all other Factories Imployments and Commands of the English Nation That is to say First That the Colonels of the English Regiments in the Low-Countries should entertain no Minister as Preacher to their Regiments but such as should conform in all things to the Church of England to be commended to them by their Lordships the Advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury and York being taken in it Secondly That the Company of Merchants there residing or in any other parts shall admit no Minister as Preacher to them but such as are so qualified and so commended as aâ—oresaid Thirdly That if any Minister hath gotten himself by indirect means to be so commended and should be afterwards found to be unconformable and should not conform himself within three months upon warning giving him by the said Colonels or Deputy Governour of the Factors under whom he liveth he shall be dismist from his imployment and a more orderly man recommended to it Fourthly That every Minister or Chaplain in any Factory or Regiment whether of English or Scots shall read the Common Prayers Administer the Sacraments Catechise the Children and perform all other publick Ministerial duties according to the Rules or Rubricks of the English Liturgie and not otherwise Fifthly That if any Minister or Preacher being the Kings born Subject should with any bitter words or writings in Print or otherwise defame the Church of England by Law established notice thereof is to be given to the Ambassador there and by him to this State by whom the party so offending should be commanded over again to answer for his said offences the like to be done also in derogating from the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and in Preaching Writing or Printing any thing prejudicial to the Temporal State and Government of the Realm of England Sixthly That no Colonel or Deputy Governour should permit their Minister or Preacher in the case of sickness or necessary absence to bring in any to preach or officiate for him but such an one for whose conformity he would be accountable Seventhly That no Deputy Governours should be sent to Delfe or any other place of Residence for the English Merchants but one that being conformable to the Church of England both in Doctrine and Discipline would take care also that such as be under him shall perform all Church duties before expressed that the party so designed shall be presented to their Lordships by the Merchant Adventurers giving assurance of his fitness and sufficiency for that charge and that some of the chief of the Merchants be sent for to the board and made acquainted with this order Eightly That as often as the said Merchants shall renew their Patents a clause for the due observation of these Instructions or so many of them at the least as should seem necessary to their Lordships to be inserted in the same Ninthly That all his Majesties Agents there from time to time have these Instructions given them in Charge and that once a year they be required to give the Board an account of the Progress of the business that further order might be taken if occasion be Tenthly That the English Ministers in Holland being his Majesties born Subjects be not suffered to hold any Classical meetings but howsoever not to assume the power of Ordination from which if they should not be restrained there would be a perpetual Seminary for breeding up men in Schism and Faction to the disturbance of this Kingdom In reference to the French and Dutch Churches here in England he proceeded in another method first representing the occasion of their settling here their several abuses of that Favour together with the manifold dangers and inconveniencies which might thence arise and next advising such agreeable remedies as he thought most proper for the cure And first he represented to them the great piety of this State in giving liberty to those Nations to enjoy the freedom of their own Religion at London and elsewhere in this Kingdom when being under persecution in their own Countries they could not enjoy the same at home Secondly That it was not the meaning of this State then or at any other time since that the first Generation being worn out their Children and Childrens Children being naturally born Subjects of this Realm should still remain divided from the rest of the Church which must needs alienate them from the State and make them apt to any innovation which may sort better with their humour Thirdly That they still keep themselves as a distinct body of themselves marrying only in their own Tribe with one
another by means whereof it must needs follow that as they are now a Church within a Church so in short time they might grow to be a Common-wealth in the middest of a Kingdom Fourthly That these bodies standing thus divided from the Church and State are planted for the most part in such Haven Towns as lay fittest for France and the Low-Countries which may be a shrewd temptation to them to take such advantages to themselves or to make use thereof for others as occasion offereth Fifthly That the example is of ill consequence in Church-affairs to the Subjects of England many being confirmed by it in their stubborn waies and inconformities but in London chiefly Sixthly That neither French nor Dutch Church be longer tolerated in this Kingdom than the Subjects of this Kingdom be suffered to enjoy the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England in those several parts beyond the Seas where they have their abode The dangers and inconveniencies being thus laid down he proceeds to the Remedies And first he doth advise That the number of them in all places of the Kingdom be fully known to the end a better Judgment might be made of the way by which they are to be reduced to the rest of the Kingdom Secondly That a Command be issued to this purpose from the State it self and that it be avowedly and not perfunctorily taken in all places where they do reside and a Certificate returned of the men of most credit and wealth amongst them Thirdly That if they will continue as a distinct body both from State and Church they should pay all duties double as strangers used to do in this Realm and not be capable of such immunities as the Natives have as long as they continue so divided from them Fourthly That when it shall be thought convenient to reduce them to the same condition with the rest of the Subjects they should then be warned in an Ecclesiastical way excepting such as be new Commers to repair diligently to their Parish Churches and to conform themselves to their Prayers and Sacraments which if they should refuse to do then to proceed against them by Excommunication and so unto the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo for a terror to others Fifthly and lastly That if this course prevaile not with them a Declaration to be made by the State to this effect That if they will be as natives and take the benefit of Subjects they must conform themselves to the Laws of the Kingdom as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal That being the likeliest way to make them capable of the inconveniencies they should run unto by their refusal and perverseness Such were the considerations offered by him to the Lords of the Council for advancing the peace and honour of this Church both at home and abroad But long it will not be before we shall behold him sitting in the Chair of Canterbury acting his own counsels bringing these Conceptions to the birth and putting the design into execution of which more hereafter These matters standing in this state we must at last look toward Scotland for the receiving of which Crown his Majesty and the Court prepare the beginning of this year But besides the Pomp and Splendor of a Coronation which the people with great importunity had long prest upon him there were some other Loadstones which made the Needle of his Compass point so much to the North. Concerning which the Reader may be pleased to know that at the first Alteration of Religion in the Kirk of Scotland the Scots petitioning for aide from Queen Elizabeth to expell the French obliged themselves by the subscription of their hands to embrace the Liturgie Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England According whereunto an Ordinance was made by their Reformers that in all Parishes of that Realm the Common-Prayer should be read weekly on Sundaies and other Festival daies with the Lessons of the Old and New Testament conform to the order of the Book of Common-Prayer of the Church of England it being well known that for divers years after they had no other order for Common-Prayer but that which they received from hence But as Presbytery prevailed so the Liturgie sell the fancy of Extemporary Prayers growing up so fast in the minority of King Iames that it soon thrust all Publick Forms out of use and credit In which confused estate it stood till the coming of that King to the Crown of England where he much pleased himself with the Sobriety and Piety of the publick Liturgie This made him cast his eyes more sadly on the Kirk of Scotland where for want of some such publick Forms of Prayers the Ministers prayed so ignorantly that it was a shame to all Religion to have God spoke to in that barbarous manner and sometimes so seditiously that their Prayers were plain Libells against Authority or stuft with lies made up of all the false reports in the Kingdom For remedy whereof after he had restored and settled the Episcopal Government he procured the General Assembly of that Kirk held at Aberdeen Anno 1616. to pass an Act for Authorising some of the Bishops and divers others to compile a Publick Liturgie for the use of that Kirk which being presented unto the King and by him approved should be universally received over all the Kingdom To prepare the way unto them his Majesty gave order the next Spring after That the English Liturgie should be Officiated day by day in his Chappel-Royal in the City of Edenborough and in the year following 1618. obtained the five Articles before-mentioned as so many chief Ingredients for the Common-Prayer-Book to be passed at Perth by which Encouragements the Commissioners which were appointed to compile the Book went so luckily forwards that it was not long before they brought it to an end and sent it to King Iames by Archbishop Spotswood who not only carefully perused every Passage in it but caused it to be revised by some of the Bishops of that Kingdom which were then in England in whose Judgments he reposed especial confidence Fitted according to his mind he sent it back again to those from whose hands he received it to be by them commended to the use of the Church which undoubtedly had took effect if the Breach with Spain and the Death of that King which followed not long after had not unfortunately interrupted the Success of the business In this condition of Affairs King Charles succeeded in the Crown ingaged in a War with the King of Spain and standing upon no good terms with his People at home so that the business of the Liturgie seemed to be laid asleep if not quite extinct But in the year 1629. having agreed his differences with the Crown of France and being in a good way towards an Accommodation with the King of Spain the Scottish Bishops were again remembred of their Duty in it who dispatch'd Maxwell then one of the Preachers of Edenborough to the Court
place where the Altar formerly had stood In Christ-Church the Cathedral of that City to which the Lord Deputies repair on Sundays and Holydays for Gods Publick Worship he found the Holy Table scituated in the middle of the Choire or Chancel and day by day profaned by Boys and Girles who sate upon it This Table he caused to be removed also as he did the other And whereas the Earl of Cork had built a stately Monument for his Wife and some of her Ancestors but chiefly for himself and his own Posterity at the East end of the Choire in St. Patrick's Church being the second of that City the Lord Deputy required him to take it down or otherwise to satisfie the Archbishop of Canterbury in the standing of it Of all these things he gave Order to his Chaplain Bramhall to give the Archbishop an Account which Bramhall did accordingly in his Letters of the tenth of August 1633. In which Letters he gave this testimony also of the Deputies Care That it was not possible for the Intentions of a mortal Man to be more serious and sincere in those things that concerned the good of the Irish Church than his Lordships were And that he might lay a sure foundation to proceed upon he procured the University of Dublin to make choice of Laud then being Lord Elect of Canterbury for their Lord and Chancellor To this they chearfully assented passed the Election on the fourteenth of September Anno 1633. being but six days before his actual Confirmation into the Metropolitical and Supream Dignity of the Church of England Nor was it long before they found on what a gracious Benefactor they had placed that Honour He had been told by Ryves his Majesties Advocate who formerly had exercised that Office in the Realm of Ireland of the deplorable condition of that Church in the respect of Maintenance Most of the Tythes had been appropriated to Monasteries and Religious Houses afterwards vested in the Crown or sold to private Subjects and made Lay-Fees The Vicaridges for the most part Stipendary and their Stipends so miserable sordid that in the whole Province of Connaught most of the Vicars Pensions came but to 40 s. per Annum and in many places but 16. The Bishopricks at that time were many in number but of small Revenue having been much dilapidated in the change of Religion some of them utterly unable to maintain a Bishop and no good Benefice near them to be held in Commendam This had been certified unto him by Letters from the Lord Primate about three years since and it had been certified also by Beadle Bishop of Killmore That the Churches were in great decay and that some men of better quality than the rest were possessed of three four five or more of those Vâ—caridges to the great disservice of the Church and reproach to themselves These things he could not chuse but look on as great discouragements to Learning and such as could produce no other effects than Ignorance in the Priest and Barbarism in the People Scandalous Benefices make for the most part scandalous Ministers as naked Walls are said in the English Proverb to make giddy Houswifes Where there is neither Means nor Maintenance for a Learned Ministry what a gross night of Ignorance must befal those men who were to hold forth the Light to others And if the Light it self be Darkness how great a Darkness must it be which doth follow after it That Observation of Panormitan That poor Churches will be filled with none but ignorant Priests being as true as old and as old as lamentable For remedy whereof he took an opportunity to move his Majesty to restore all such Impropriations to the Church of Ireland as were then vested in the Crown The Exchequer was at that time empty the Revenue low which might seem to make the Proposition the more unseasonable But so great was his Majesties Piety on the one side the Reasons so forcible on the other and the Lord Deputy of that Kingdom so cordially aâ—fected to advance the Work that his Majesty graciously condescended to it and sound his Ministers there as ready to speed the business as either of them could desire Encouraged by which Royal Example the Earl of Cork who from a very small beginning had raised himself to a vast Revenue in that Kingdom Re-built some Churches and Repaired others restored some of his Impropriations to those several Churches and doubtless had proceeded further if a difference had not hapned betwixt the Lord Deputy and him about the removing of the Monument which he had erected for himself and his Posterity in one of the principal Churches of the City of Dublin as before was said And as for the improving of the Bishopricks as Ossory and Kilkenny Killmore and Ardagh Down and Connor and possibly some others had before this been joined together so was it advised by the Primate That Kilfenore should be joined unto that of Killalow lying contiguous to each other Both which being joined by a perpetual union were thought sufficient to make an indifferent Competency for an Irish Bishop But all this Care had been to little or no purpose if some course were not also taken to preserve Religion endangered on this side by Popery and on that by Calvinism each side unwillingly contributing to the growth of the other The perverse oppositions of the Calvinist made the Papist obstinate and the insolencies of the Papists did both vex and confirm the Calvinists Betwixt them both the Church of England was so lost that there was little of her genuine and native Doctrine to be found in the Clergy of that Kingdom The Papists being first suppressed it was conceived to be no hard matter to reduce the Calvinians to Conformity and to suppress the Papists it was found expedient That the standing Army should be kept in continual Pay and that Monies should be levied on the Papists themselves for the payment of it In order whereunto the Bishop of Killmore before-mentioned had given an Account unto his Grace then Bishop of London touching the dangerous condition of that Church by the growth of Popery and now he finds it necessary to give the like Account unto the new Lord Deputy Him therefore he informs by Letters dated November 5. 1633. which was not long after he had personally assumed the Government and received the Sword to this effect viz. That in that Crown the Pope had a far greater Kingdom than his Majesty had That the said Kingdom of the Pope was governed by the new Congregation de propaganda Fide established not long since at Rome That the Pope had there a Clergy depending on him double in number to the English the Heads of which were bound by a corporal Oath to maintain his Power and Greatness against all Persons whatsoever That for the moulding of the People to the Popes Obedience there was a great rabble of Irregular Regulars most of them the younger Sons of
Noble Houses which made them the more insolent and uncontrollable That the Pope had erected an University in Dublin to confront his Majesties Colledge there and breed up the Youth of the Kingdom to his Devotion one Harris being Dean thereof who had dispersed a Scandalous Pamphlet against the Lord Primates Sermon preach'd at Wansteed one of the best Pieces that ever came from him Anno 1629. That since the Dissolving of their new Frieries in the City of Dublin they had Erected them in the Country and had brought the People to such a sottish negligence that they cared not to learn the Commandments as God spake and left them but flocked in Multitudes to the hearing of such Superstitious Doctrines as some of their own Priests were ashamed of That a Synodical Meeting of their Clergy had been held lately at Drogheda in the Province of Vlster in which it was decreed That it was not lawful to take the Oath of Allegiance And therefore That in such a conjuncture of Affairs to think that the bridle of the Army might be taken away must be the thought not of a Brain-sick but of a Brainless man which whosoever did endeavour not only would oppose his Majesties Service but expose his own neck to the Skeanes of those Irish cut-throats All which he humbly refers to his Lordships seasonable Care and Consideration Upon this Information the Deputy obtains his Majesties leave to hold a Parliament in that Kingdom which he managed with such notable dexterity that he made himself Master of a Power sufficient to suppress the Insolencies of the Papists and yet exceedingly prevailed upon their Affections From which time forwards the Popish Recusants in that Kingdom were kept in stricter duty and held closer to loyal Obedience for fear of irritating so severe a Magistrate than ever they had been by any of his Predecessors This Parliament brought with it a Convocation as a thing of course and in that somewhat must be done to check the spreading of Calvinism in all parts of that Church The Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1615. were so contrived by Vsher the now Lord Primate That all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church Most grievous Torments immediately in his Soul affirmed to be endured by Christ which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The abstenencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded only upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be Lawfully called who are called unto the Work of the Ministry by those that have Publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so that he be Authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed unto the Church in Ordaining Canons or censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same the Pope made Antichrist according to the like Determination of the French Hugonots made at Gappe in Dolphine And finally such a silence concerning the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if there were not a different Order from the Common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own Opinions were dispersed in several places of these Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in that Convocation and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King Iames. By means whereof these two great mischiefs did ensue First A great matter of division which it caused to the Priests and Papists of the Realm that in three Kingdoms under the Obedience of one Sovereign Prince there should be three distinct and contrary Professions and yet pretending every one to the same Religion And secondly Whensoever the Points were agitated here in England against the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours the Disputants were forthwith choaked by the Authority of these Articles and the infallible Judgment of King Iames who confirmed the same If therefore the Archbishop meant to have Peace in England the Church of Ireland must be won to desert those Articles and receive ours in England in the place thereof This to effect it was not thought expedient by such as had the managing of that design to propose any abrogation or repealing of the former Articles which had so many Friends and Patrons in that Convocation that it was moved severally both in the House of the Bishops and in that of the Clergy to have them ratified and confirmed in the present Meeting And questionless it had been carried in that way if it had not seasonably been diverted by telling the Promoters of it That those Articles had already received as much Authority as that Church could give them and that by seeking to procure any such Confirmation they would weaken the Original Power by which they stood This blow being thus handsomly broken their next work was to move the Primate That for the avoiding of such scandal which was given the Papists and to declare the Unity in Judgment and Affections between the Churches a Canon might be passed in approbation of the Articles of the Church of England To this the Prelate being gained the Canon was drawn up and presented to him and being by him propounded was accordingly passed one only man dissenting when it came to the Vote who had pierced deeper into the bottom of the Project than the others did It was desired also by Bramhall not long before the Lord Deputies Chaplain but then Bishop of Derrie That the whole Body of Canons made in the year 1603. might be admitted in that Church But the Primate was ever so afraid of bowing at the Name of IESVS and some other Reverences required in them which he neither practised nor approved that he would by no means hearken to it which bred some heats between him and Bramhall ending at last in this Temperament That some select Canons should be taken out of that Book and intermingled with some others of their own composing But for the Canon which approved and received the Articles of the Church of England it was this that followeth viz. Of the Agreement of the Church of England and Ireland in the Profession of the same Christian Faith FOr the manifestation of our Agreement with the Church of England in the Confession of the same Christian Faith and Doctrine of the Sacraments We do receive and approve the Book of Articles of Religion agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops and the whole Clergie in whole Convocation holden at London Anno Dom. 1562. for the avoiding of diversities of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion And therefore if any hereafter shall affirm That any of those Articles are in any part Superstitious and Erroneous or such as he may not with a good Conscience Subscribe unto Let him be Excommunicated
in that expectation carrying himself with such an even and steady hand that every one applauded but none envied his preferment to it insomuch as the then Lord Faulkland in a bitter Speech against the Bishops about the beginning of the Long Parliament could not chuse but give him this faire Testimony viz. That in an unexpected place and power he expressed an equal moderation and humility being neither ambitious before nor proud after either of the Crozier or White Staff The Queen about these times began to grow into a greater prevalâ—nâ—y over his Majesties Affections than formerly she had made shew of But being too wise to make any open alteration of the conduct of aâ—â—airs she thought it best to take the Archbishop into such of her Counsels as might by him be carried on to her contentment and with no dishonour to himself of which he gives this intimation in the Breviate on the thirtieth of August 1634. viz. That the Queen sent for him to Oatlands and gave him thanks for a business which she had trusted him withall promising him to be his Friend and that he should have immediate access to her when he had occasion This seconded with the like intimation given us May 18. 1635. of which he writes that having brought his account to the Queen on May 18. Whitsunday the Court then at Greenwich it was put of till the Sunday after at which time he presented it to her and received from her an assurance of all that was desired by him Panzani's coming unto London in the Christmas holydaies makes it not improbable that the facilitating of his safe and favourable reception was the great business which the Queen had committed to the Archbishops trust and for his effecting of it with the King had given him those gracious promises of access unto her which the Breviate spake of For though Panzani was sent over from the Pope on no other pretence than to prevent a Schism which was then like to be made between the Regulars and the Secular Priests to the great scandall of that Church yet under that pretence were muffled many other designs which were not fit to be discovered unto Vulgar eyes By many secret Artifices he works himself into the fauour of Cottington Windebank and other great men about the Court and at last grew to such a confidence as to move this question to some Court-Bishops viz. Whether his Majesty would permit the residing of a Catholick Bishop of the English Nation to be nominated by his Majesty and not to exercise his Function but as his Majesty should limit Upon which Proposition when those Bishops had made this Quaere to him Whether the Pope would allow of such a Bishop of his Majesties nominating as held the Oath of Allegiance lawful and should permit the taking of it by the Catholick Subjects he puts it off by pleading that he had no Commission to declare therein one way or other And thereupon he found some way to move the King for the permission of an Agent from the Pope to be addressed to the Queen for the concernments of her Religion which the King with the Advice and Consent of his Council condescended to upon condition that the Party sent should be no Priest This possibly might be the sum of that account which the Archbishop tendred to the Queen at Greenwich on the Whitsontide after Panzani's coming which as it seems was only to make way for Con of whom more hereafter though for the better colour of doing somewhat else that might bring him hither he composed the Rupture between the Seculars and the Regulars above-mentioned I cannot tell whether I have hit right or not upon these particulars But sure I am that he resolved to serve the Queen no further in her desires than might consist both with the honour and safety of the Church of England which as it was his greatest charge so did he lay out the chief parts of his cares and thoughts upon it And yet he was not so unmindful of the Foreign Churches as not to do them all good offices when it came in his way especially when the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England was not concerned in the same For in the year 1634. having received Letters from the Queen of Bohemia with whom he held a constant course of Correspondence about the furtherance of a Collection for the exiled Ministers of the Palatinate he moved the King so effectually in it that his Majesty granted his Letters Patents for the said Collection to be made in all parts of the Kingdom which Letters Patents being sealed and brought unto him for his further Direction in prosecution of the same he found a passage in it which gave him no small cause of offence and was this that followeth viz. Whose cases are the more to be deplored for that this extremity is fallen upon them for their sincerity and constancy in the true Religion which we together with them professed and which we are all bound in conscience to maintain to the utmost of our powers whereas these Religious and Godly persons being involved amongst other their Country-men might have enjoyed their Estates and Fortunes if with other backsliders in the times of Trial they would have submitted themselves to the Antichristian Yoke and have renounced or dissembled the Profession of the true Religion Upon the reading of which passage he observed two things First That the Religion of the Palatine Churches was declared to be the same with ours And secondly That the Doctrine and Government of the Church of Rome is called an Antichristian Yoke neither of which could be approved of in the same terms in which they were presented to him For first he was not to be told that by the Religion of those Churches all the Calvinian Rigors in the point of Predestination and the rest depending thereupon were received as Orthodox that they maintain a Parity of Ministers directly contrary both to the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England and that Pareus Profesâ—or of Divinity in the University of Heydelberg who was not to be thought to have delivered his own sense only in that point ascribes a power to inferiour Magistrates to curb the power controule the persons and resist the Authority of Soveraign Princes for which his Comment on the Romans had been publickly burnt by the appointment of King Iames as before is said Which as it plainly proves that the Religion of those Churches is not altogether the same with that of ours so he conceived it very unsafe that his Majesty should declare under the Great Seal of England that both himself and all his Subjects were bound in conscience to maintain the Religion of those Churches with their utmost power And as unto the other point he lookt upon it as a great Controversie not only between some Protestant Divines and the Church of Rome but between the Protestant Divines themselves hitherto not determined in any Council nor
his words and mistakes his meaning wresting the most Orthodox and innocent truths to his wicked ends and putting his own corrupt Gloss and sense upon them And which is yet most strange of all with an unparalelled impudence he dedicates it to his Sacred Majesty calling upon him To send out his Royal Edict for the taking down of all Altars which where ever they stand are by him said to stand in open defiance of Christ Another for calling in the Book for Sports on the Lords day A third for calling in his Declaration before the Articles of Religion A fourth for calling in of all Orders for the Restraint of Preaching A fifth for restoring to their place and Ministry all those who out of Conscience of their duty to God had by the Prelates been thrust out of all for refusing to read the said Book And finally for releasing and setting at liberty the three poor banished prisoners the loud cry of whose oppressions might otherwise provoke the thunderbolt of Divine Revenge to blast the beauty of his State Now as he laboured by these means to preserve the Church of England from the growth of Popery so he took care for preventing the subversion of it by the spreading of the Socinian Heresies He had before took care for suppressing all Books of that nature which had been imported into England out of other Countries and had received thanks for it from the Pen of a Jesuit But Burton chargeth it upon him among his Crimes reproaching him for suppressing those books for no other reason but because they magnified the Authority of the holy Scriptures and by the late Decree for Printing of which more anon he had took such order that no Eggs of that pestiferous Brood should be laid in England or if they were should ever peep out of the Shell or appear in sight There had been published a Discourse called Disquisitio Brevis in which some of the principal Socinian Tenents were cunningly inserted pretending them for the best Expedients to appease some Controversies betwixt us and Rome The Book ascribed in common Speech to Hales of Eaton a man of infinite reading and no less ingenuity free of Discourse and as communicative of his knowledge as the Coelestial Bodies of their light and influences There past also up and down a Discourse of Schism not Printed but transmitted from hand to hand in written Copies like the Bishop of Lincolns Letter to the Vicar of Grantham intended chiefly for the encouragement of some of our great Masters of Wit and Reason to despise the Authority of the Church Which being dispersed about this time gave the Archbishop occasion to send for him to Lambeth in hope that he might gain the man whose abilities he was well acquainted with when he lived in Oxon. An excellent Grecian in those daies and one whom Savil made great use of in his Greek Edition of St. Chrysostoms Works About nine of the Clock in the Morning he came to know his Graces pleasure who took him along with him into his Garden commanding that none of his Servants should come at him upon any occasion There they continued in discourse till the Bell rang to Prayers and after Prayers were ended till the Dinner was ready and after that too till the coming in of the Lord Conway and some other Persons or honour put a necessity upon some of his Servants to give him notice how the time had passed away So in they came high coloured and almost panting for want of breath enough to shew that there had been some heats between them not then fully cooled It was my chance to be there that day either to know his Graces pleasure or to render an account of some former commands but I know not which and I found Hales very glad to see me in that place as being himself a meer stranger to it and unknown to all He told me afterwards That he found the Archbishop whom he knew before for a nimble Disputant to be as well versed in books as business That he had been ferretted by him from one hole to another till there was none left to afford him any further shelter That he was now resolved to be Orthodox and to declare himself a true Son of the Church of England both for Doctrine and Discipline That to this end he had obtained leave to call himself his Graces Chaplain that naming him in his Publick Prayers for his Lord and Patron the greater notice might be taken of the Alteration Thus was Hales gained unto the Church and gained a good preferment in it promoted not long after by the Archbishops Commendation to be Prebend of Windsor and to hold the same by special dispensation with his place in Eaton Nor was the Archbishop less intent upon all Advantages for keeping down the Genevian Party and hindring them from Printing and Publishing any thing which might disturb the Churches Peace or corrupt her Doctrine To this end he procured a Decree to be pass'd in the Star-Chamber on Iuly 1. Anno 1637. to Regulate the Trade of Printing and prevent all Abuses of that Excellent Art to the disturbance of the Church By which Decree it had been Ordered That the Master-Printers from thenceforth should be reduced to a certain number and that if any other should secretly or openly pursue that Trade he should be set in the Pillory or whipped through the Streets and suffer such other Punishment as that Court should inflict upon him That none of the said Master-Printers should from thenceforth Print any Book or Books of Divinity Law Physick Philosophy or Poetry till the said Books together with the Titles Epistles Prefaces Tables or Commendatory Verses shall be lawfully Licenced either by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London for the time being or by some of their Chaplains or by the Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors of either of the two Vniversities upon pain of loosing the Exercise of his Art and being proceeded against in the Star-Chamber or the High-Commission Court respectively That no Person or Persons do hereafter Re-print or cause to be Re-printed any Book or Books whatsoever though formerly Printed with Licence without being reviewed and a new Licence obtained for the Re-printing thereof That every Merchant Bookseller or other Person who shall Import any Printed Books from beyond the Seas shall present a true Catalogue of them to the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being before they be delivered or exposed to Sale upon pain of suffering such Punishment as by either of the said two Courts respectively shall be thought fit That none of the said Merchants Booksellers or others shall upon pain of the like Punishment deliver any of the Books so Imported till the Chaplains of the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being or some other Learned Man by them appointed together with the Master and Wardens of the Company of Stationers or one of them shall take a view of the same with Power to seize
on all such Books which they found to be Schismatical and Offensive and bring them to the said Archbishop or Bishop or to the High-Commission Office And finally That no Merchant Bookseller c. should Print or cause to be Printed beyond the Seas any Book or Books which either totally or for the greatest part were written in the English Tongue whether the said Books have been here formerly Printed or not nor shall willingly or knowingly Import any such Books into this Kingdom upon pain of being proceeded against in either of the said two Courts respectively as before is said By means of which Decree he had so provided both at home and abroad That neither the Patience of the State should be exercised as in former times with continual Libels nor the Church troubled by unwarrantable and Out-landish Doctrines But good Laws are of no effect without execution and if he took no care for that he had lost his labour King Iames had manifested his dislike of the Genevian Bibles and the Notes upon them some of which did not only teach Disobedience to Kings and Princes but the murthering of them also if they proved Idolaters and others did not only teach the Lawfulness of breaking Faith and Promise when the keeping of it might conduce to the hurt of the Gospel but ranked Archbishops Bishops and all men in Holy Orders or Academical Degrees amongst those Locusts in the Revelation which came out of the Pit That King gave Order thereupon That the Bible of the New Translation should be printed with no Notes at all which course he also recommended to the Synod of Dort to be observed in the new Translation of the Bible into the Dutch or German Tongue which was then intended Upon this ground the Printing of those Bibles with Notes upon them had been forbidden in this Kingdom but were Printed in Holland notwithstanding and brought over hither the better to keep up the Faction and aâ—â—ront Authority Some of them had before been seised in Holland by the care of Boswel the Resident at the Hague And in the beginning of this year he received Advertisement of a new Impression of the same designed for England if the terrour of this Decree did not stop their coming Because Holland and the rest of the Provinces under the Government of the States was made the Receptacle of many of our English Malecontents who there and from thence vented their own Passions and the Discourses of their Party in this Kingdom to the disturbance of the Church it concerned him to keep a careful watch over them and their Actions Of these he had Advertisement from time to time by one Iohn Le Maire and thereupon by the means of Boswell his right trusty Friend he dealt so effectually with the States-General of those Provinces that they made a Proclamation against the Printers and Spreaders of Libellous and Seditious Books against the Church and Prelates of England and tooke Order with the Magistrates of Amsterdam and Rotterdam two great Towns in Holland for apprehending and punishing of such Englishmen as had Printed any of the said Lawless and Unlicenced Pamphlets There was a time when Queen Elizabeth beheld the Pope as her greatest Enemy in reference to her Mothers Marriage her own Birth and consequently her Title to the Crown of England and many of the Books which were Printed in and about that time were full of bitterness and revilings against the Church of Rome it self and all the Divine Offices Ceremonies and Performances of it There was a time also when the Calvinian Doctrines were embraced by many for the Genuine Doctrines of this Church to the great countenancing of the Genevian Discipline and Forms of Administration And not a few of the Books then Printed and such as after were Licenced in Abbot's Time aimed principally at the Maintenance of those Opinions which the latter Times found inconsistent with the Churches Doctrines With equal diligence he endeavoured by this Decree to hinder the Reprinting of the one and the other that so the Church might rest in quiet without any trouble or molestation in her self or giving offence to any other As little Trouble could be feared from Lecturers as they now were Regulated The greatest part of those who had been Superinducted into other Mens Cures like a Doctor added to the Pastor in Calvin's Plat-form had deserted their Stations because they would not read the Common-Prayers in their Hoods and Surplices according to the Kings Instructions before remembred such as remained being either founded on a constant or certain Maintenance or seeing how little was to be gotten by a fiery and ungoverned Zeal became more pliant and conformable to the Rules of the Church Not a Lecturer of this kind found to stand out in some great Diocesses to keep up the Spirits of the Faction and create disturbances And as for Combination-Lecturers named for the most part by the Bishops and to them accountable they also were required in some places to read the second Service at the Communion-Table to go into the Pulpit at the end of the Nicene Creed to use no other form of Prayer than that of the 55th Canon after the Sermon ended to go back to the Table and there read the Service All which being to be done in their Hoods and Surplices kept off the greatest part of the rigid Calvinists from exercising their Gifts as formerly in great Market-Towns And as for the position of the Communion-Table it was no longer left to private Instructions as it was at the first when the Inquiry went no further than Whether the Lords Table was so conveniently placed that the Minister might best be seen and heard of the Congregation The more particular disposing of it being left to Inference Conjecture or some private Directions It now began to be more openly avowed in the Visitation-Articles of several Bishops and Archdeacons some of which we shall here produce as a light to the rest For thus we find it in the Articles for the Archdeaconry of Buckingham Anno 1637. Art 5. Have you a decent Table or a Frame for the Holy Communion placed at the East end of the Chancel Is it Railed in or Enclosed so as Men or Boys cannot sit upon it or throw their Hats upon it Is the said Rail and Inclosure so made with Settles and kneeling-Benches at the foot or bottom thereof as the Communicants may fitly kneel there at the Receiving of the Holy Communion The like for the Diocess of Norwich in the year before where we find it thus viz. Have you in your Church a Communion Table a Carpet of Silk c. And is the same placed conveniently so as the Minister may best be heard in his Administration and the greatest number may reverently Communicate To that end Doth it ordinarily stand up at the East end of the Chancel where the Altar in former times stood the ends thereof being placed North and South And in another Article it is
also with higher promises that he might corrupt his sincere mind yet a fitting occasion was never offered whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Archbishop to whom free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel as also by Secretary Windebank all whose intercessions he neglected and did shun as it were the Plague the company or Familiarity of Con. He was also sollicited by others of no mean Rank well known to him and yet he continued unmovable And whereas some found a way to help at last by making Windebank the Internuncio betwixt him and them that only serves to make the matter rather worse than better there being a great strangeness grown betwixt him and Windebank not only before Con's coming into the Realm but before Panzani had settled any course of intelligence in the Court of England As for his favours towards those of the Catholick Party and his connivence of their Practices which is next objected as he had good reason for the one so there could be no reason to object the other He had good reason for the one viz. That by shewing favours to the Papists here they might obtain the like favours for such Protestants as lived in the Dominion of Popish Princes Upon which ground King Iames extended many favours to them in his time as opinions as that Writer makes them appears first by the Testimony of the Archbishop of Spalato declaring in the High Commission a little beâ—ore â—iâ—â—oing hence that he acknowledged the Articles of the Church to be true or profitable at the least and none of them to be Heretical It appears secondly by a Tractate of Franciscus a Sancta Clara as he calls himself in which he pâ—tteth such a gloss upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England as rendreth them not inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome And iâ— without prejudice to the truth the controversies might have been composed it is most probable that other Protestant Churches would have suâ—d by their Agents to be included in the Peace if not the Church of England had lost nothing by it as being hated by the Calvinists and not loved by the Lutherans Admitting then that such a Reconciliation was endeavoured betwixt the Agents for both Churches Let us next see what our great States-men have discoursed upon that particular upon what terms the Agreement was to have been made and how far they proceeded in it And first the book entituled the Popes Nuncio affirmed to have been written by a Venetian Ambassador at his being in England doth discourse it tâ—us As to a Reconciliation saith he between the Churches of England and Rome there were made some general Propositions and overtures by the Archbishops Agents they assuring that his Grace was very much disposed thereunto and that if it was not accomplisht in his life time it would prove a work of more difficulty after his death that in very truth for the last three years the Archbishop had introduced some Innovations approaching â—ear the Rites and Forms of Rome that the Bishop of Chichester a great Confident of his Grace the Lord Treasurer and eight other Bishops of his Graces party did most passionately desire a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome that they did day by day receed from their Ancient Tenents to accommodate with the Church of Rome that therefore the Pope on his part ought to make some steps to meet them and the Court of Romeâ—â—mit â—â—mit something of its Rigor in Doctrine or otherwise no accord would be The composition on both sides in so good a forwardness before Panzam leâ—t the Kingdom that the Archbishop and and Bishop of Chichester had often said that there were but two sorts of People likely to impede and hinder the Reconciliation to wit the Puritans amongst the Protestants and the Iesuites amongst the Catholicks Let us next see the judgement and Relation of another Author in a gloss or Comment on the Former intituled the English Pope Printed at London in the same year 1643. And he will tells us that after Con had undertook the managing of the affairs matters began to grow toward some agreement The King required saith he such a dispensation from the then Pope as that his Catholick Subjects might resort to the Protestant Churches and to take the oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity and that the Popes Jurisdiction here should be declared to be but of humane Right And so far had the Pope consented that whatsoever did concern the King therein should have been really performed so far forth as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be Independent both from King and Pope there was no fear of breach on the Popes part So that upon the point the Pope was to content himself amongst us in England with a Priority instead of a Superiority over other Bishops and with a Primacy in stead of a Supremacy in thâ—se parts of Christendom which I conceive no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him It was also condescended to in the name of the Pope that marriage might be permitted to Priests that the Communion might be Administred sub utraque specie and that the Liturgy might be officiated in the English tongue And though the Author adds not long after that it was to be suspected That so far as the inferiour Clergy and the people were concerned the after-performance was to be leâ—t to the Popes Discretion yet this was but his own suspicion without ground at all And to obtain a Reconciliation upon these Advantages the Archbishop had all the Reason in the world to do as he did in ordering the Lords Table to be placed where the Altar stood and making the accustomed Reverence in all approaches towards it and accesses to it in beautifying and adorning Churches and celebrating the Divine Service with all due Solemnities in taking care that all offensive and exasperating passages should be expunged out of such Books as were brought to the Press and for reducing the extravagancy of some opinions to an evener temper His Majesty had the like Reason also for tolerating Lawful Recreations on the Sundays and Holy-days The rigorous Restraint whereof made some Papists think those most especially of the vulgar sort whom it most concerned that all honest Pastime were incompetible with our Religion And if he approved Auricular Confession and shewed himself willing to introduce it into the use of the Church as both our Authors say he did it is no more then what the Liturgy Commends to the care of the Penitent though we find not the word Auricular in it or what the Canons have provided for in the point of security for such as shall be willing to confess themselves But whereas we are told by one of our Authors that the King should say he would use force to make it be received were it not for fear of Sedition
ex Officio And finally That no person or persons subject to the said Writ shall be Absolved by virtue of an Appeal into any Ecclesiastical Court till they have first taken in their own persons the usual Oath De parendo juri stando mandatis Ecclesiae With a Petition to his Majesty in the Name of the Synod to give command both to his Officers in Chancery and the Sheriffs of the several Counties for sending out and executing the said Writs from time to time without any Charge to the Diocesans whose Estates it would otherwise much exhaust as often as it should be desired of them Such is the substance of this Canon in laying down whereof I have been the more punctual and exact that the equal and judicious Reader may the better see what point it was which the Archbishop aimed at from the first beginning of his Power and Government as before was noted In the mean time whilst this Canon was under a Review another ready drawn was tendred to the Prolocutor by the Clerk of Westminster for the better keeping of the day of his Majesties most happy Inauguration By which it was decreed according to the Example of the most pious Emperours of the Primitive Times and our own most Godly Kings and Princes since the Reformation and the Form of Prayer already made and by his Majesties Authority Appointed to be used on the said days of Inauguration That all manner of persons within the Church of England should from thenceforth celebrate and keep the morning of the said day in coming diligently and reverently unto their Parish Church or Chappel at the time of Prayer and there continue all the while that the Prayers Preaching or other Service of the day endureth That for the better observing of the said day two of the said Books should be provided at the Charge of each several Parish by the Churchwardens of the same with an Injunction to all Bishopâ— Archdeacons and other Ordinaries to inquire into the premises at their Visitations and punish such as are delinquent as in case of such as absent themselves on the other Holydays Another Canon was brought in against Socinianism by the spreading of which damnable and cursed Heresie much mischief had already been done in the Church For the suppressing whereof it was ordained by the Synod after some explication and correction of the words and phrases That no Stationer Printer or other person should print buy sell or disperse any Book broaching or maintaining the said Abominable Doctrine or Positions upon pain of Excommunication ipso facto and of being proceeded against by his Majesties Atturney-General on a Certificate thereof to be returned by the several Ordinaries to their Metropolitan according to the late Decree of Star-Chamber against Sellers of prohibited Books That no Preacher should presume to vent any such Doctrine in any Sermon under pain of Excommunication for the first Offence and Deprivation for the second That no Student in either of the Universities nor any person in Holy Orders excepting Graduates in Divinity or such as have Episcopal or Archidiaconal Jurisdiction or Doctors of Law in Holy Orders shall be suffered to have or read any such Socinian Book or Discourse under pain if the Offender live in the University that he shall be punished according to the strictest Statutes provided there against the publishing reading and maintaining of false Doctrines or if he lived in the City or Country abroad of a Suspension for the first Oâ—fence Excommunication â—or the second and Deprivation for the third unless he should absolutely and in terminis abjure the same That if any Lay-person should be seduced unto that Opinion and be convicted of it he should be Excommunicated and not Absolved but upon due Repentance and Abjuration and that before his Metropolitan or his own Bishop at least With several Clauses for seizing and burning all such Books as should be found in any other hands than those before limited and expressed Which severe course being taken by the Convocation makes it a matter of no small wonder That Cheynell the Usufructuary of the 〈◊〉 Parsonage of Petworth should impute the Rise and Growth of 〈◊〉 in a Pamphlet not long after Printed unto many of those who had been principal Actors in suppressing of those wicked and detestable Heresies Another Canon was presented to the Prolecutâ—r by one of the Members of that Body advanced the next year to a 〈◊〉 Dignity for Restraint of Sectaries By which it was deâ—â—â—â—d That all those Proceedings and Penalties which are mentiâ—â—â—d in the Canon against Popish Recusants so far forth as may be appliable should be in full force and vigour against all Anabaptists Brownists Sâ—peratists Familists or other Sect or Sects Person or Persons whatsoever who do or shall either obstinately refuse or ordinarily not having a lawful impediment that is for the space of a Month neglect to repair to their Parish Churches or Chappels where they inhabit for the hearing of Divine Service established and receiving of the Holy Communion according to Law That the Clause in the former Canon against Books of Socinianism should also extend to the Makers Importers Printers and Publishers or Dispersers of any Book Writing or Scandalous Pamphlet devised against the Discipline and Government of the Church of England and unto the Maintainers and Abettors of any Opinion or Doctrine against the same And finally That all despisers and depravers of the Book of Common Prayer who resorted not according to Law to their Church or Chappel to joyn in the Publick Worship of God in the Congregation contenting themselves with the hearing of Sermons only should be carefully inquired after and presented to their several and respective Ordinaries The same Proceedings and Penalties mentioned in the aforesaid Canons to be used against them unless within one whole Month after they are first Denounced they shall make Acknowledgment and Reformation of their fault So far the Bishops and Clergy had proceeded in the Work recommended to them when the Parliament was most unhappily Dissolved And possibly the Convocation had expired the next day also according to the usual custom if one of the Clergy had not made the Archbishop acquainted with a Precedent in Queen Elizabeths Time for the granting a Subsidy or Benevolence by Convocation to be Taxed and Levied by Synodical Acts and Constitutions without help of the Parliament directing to the Records of Convocation where it was to be found Whereupon the Convocation was Adjourned from Wednesday till the Friday following and then till the next day after and so till Munday to the great amazement of many of the Members of it who expected to have been Dissolved when the Parliament was according to that clause in the Commission aforesaid by which it was restrained to the Time of the Parliament only Much pains was taken by some of the Company who had been studied in the Records of Convocation in shewing the difference betwixt the Writ for calling a Parliament
in every Quarter of the year at Morning Prayer And it was added by the Canons that if any Parson Vicar Curate or Preacher should Voluntarily or carelesly neglect his duty in publishing the said Explications and Conclusions according to the Order above prescribed he should be suspended by his Ordinary till his Reformation That all Bishops Priests and Ministers should Teach Preach and Exhort their People to Obey Honour and Serve their King and that they presume not to speak of his Majesties Power any other way then in the Canon is expressed with reference to Excommunication and a Suspension of two years for the first Offence and Deprivation for the second to be inflicted by his Majesties Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical upon all Persons whatsoever which in any Sermon Lecture Determination or Disputation should maintain any point of Doctrine contrary to the said Propositions and Explications In reference to the preservation of the Episcopal power an Oath was dâ—awn up in the Upper and sent down to the Lower House of Convocation by them to be debated approved and ratified upon Approbation Which Oath was required to be taken by all Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons before the second day of November then next following to be tendered in the presence of a publike Notary to all Priests and Deacons by the Bishop in person or his Chancellour or some grave Divines named and appointed by the Bishop under his Episcopal Seat In the first words of the Oath aâ— it came from the Lords it was expressed in these words that every man should Swear to the Doctrine and Discipline established in Church of England And this occasioned some dispute concerning the extent of the word Discipline whither it comprehended the Episcopal Government and the publick Forms of Divine Worship or was to be restrained only to the use of the Keys as it was practiced in Ecclesiastical Courts Some would have had the words run thus I. A. B. do swear that I approve the Doctrines Discipline or Government established c. But against this it was objected First that the Government of the Church was sufficiently provided for by the following clause in which there was an especial Enumeratâ—â—â— of all Offices impowred in the Government of the Church and that it was incongruous to make that Discipline and Government to be the same and that Government should be said to contain all things or any thing which was necessary to Salvation And they that thus objected would have had it pass in these words viz. I approve the Doctrine Discipline and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary unto Salvation Which though it seemed more plausible and intelligible then the other was yet being put unto the vote it was carried for Discipline or â—â—â—â—rnment under pretence of not clogging the Oath with things unnecessary and such as might be made capable of a variation According to which Vote the Canon was drawn up with this title viz. An Oath injoyned for the preventing of all Innovations in Doctrine and Government and the Oath it self injoyned in this form following that is to say I. A. B. Do swear that I do Approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government Established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Pâ—pish Doctrine contrary to that which is so established Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans and Archdeacons c. As it stands now established and as by Right it ought to stand nor yet ever to subject it to the usurpations and Superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things I do plainly and seriously acknowledge and swear according to the plain and Common sense and understanding of the same words without any Equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ. The Oath being past the Canon was drawn up by the former hand according to such Instructions as were sent along with it By which it was required that all Masters of Art the Sons of Noblemen only excepted all Bachelors or Doctors in Divinity Law or Physick all that are licenced to practice Physick all Registers â—â—ctuaries and Procters all School-masters all such as being natives oâ— Naturalized do come to be incorporated into the Universities here having taken any Degree in any Foreign University should be bound to take the said Oath the same Oath to be Administred to all such of the persons abovenamed residing in any University by the Governors of their several Houses and by the Bishop Respectively to all which should from thenceforth be admitted to holy Orders or receive any Institution Collation or Licence for the serving of any cure with several Penalties to all beneficed Parsons and all such as were then in any Ecclesiastical dignity for their Refusal of the same that is to say a suspension ab officio for the first Refusal à beneficio officio for the second and Deprivation for the tâ—ird a Moneths deliberation being granted betwixt each Refusal These two great matters being thus concluded A message is delivered by the Prolocutor from the house of Bishops by which the Clergy were desired to consider of the best expedient for inducing an Uniformity in the Church about the situation of the Lords Table the Receiving of the blessed Sacrament and the due Revenue to be used in the house of God and to prepare a Caâ—â—â— to that purpose if they found it necessary On the Receiving of 〈◊〉 message a grand Committee was selected out of the Ablest men oâ— the House to take that great and weighty business into consideration and to Report unto the House whatsoever they should do therein that it might pass or be rejected as the House thought fit The Committee consisted of 27. the Prolocutor being reckoned into the number their meeting to be held the same afternoon in the Chappel of King Hen. 7. Where being met and sitting about the table provided for the use of the Bishops the points were seriously debated every man speaking his opinion in them when it came to his turn without interruption beginning with the Prolocutor and so proceeding from man to man till it concluded with the Clerk for the Church of Westminster So placed of purpose that he might answer all such arguments as had been brought against any of the points proposed and were not answered to his hand The Prolocutor having taken the summe of every mans Judgement declared that the far Major part had appeared for placing the Lords Table where the Altar stood the drawing neer unto it to receive the Sacrament and the making of due Reverences at the entring into the Church and going out of it and thereupon put it to the question whether they
of his Majesties Privy-Council had any thing been contained in them derogatory to the Kings Prerogative or tendinâ— to Faction and Sedition So far they were from being liable to Condemnation in those respects that Justice Crook whose Argument in the Case of Ship-money was Printed afterwards by Order from the House of Commons is credibly affirmed to have lifted up his hands and to have given hearty Thanks to Almighty God that he had lived to see so good Effects of a Convocation On these Encouragements and such a solemn Approbation the Clergy were called up to the House of Bishops to be present at the subscribing oâ— them which was accordingly performed May 29. by the Bishops Deans and Archdeacons in their Seniority and promiscuoâ—sly by the rest of the Clergy till all the Members had Subscribed every mans heart going together with his hand as it is to be presumed from all men of that holy Profession Recusant there was none but the Bishop of Glocester suspected of some inclinations to the Romish Religion in the Times preceding which inclinations he declared more manifestly by this Refusal for which there could be no imaginable Reason to prevail upon him but the severity of the Canon for suppressing the Growth of Popery Some pains was taken with him in the way of perswasion and some Commands laid on him by his Metropolitan as President of the Convocation But when neither of the two Endeavours could remove him from his former obstinacy the Prolocutor and Clergy were required to return to their House again and to consider of the Penalty which he had incurred according to the Rules and Practice of the Catholick Church in National and Provincial Councils Which being done the Proloâ—â—tor had no sooner put the Question but the Clergy unanimously condemned him to a Suspension a Beneficio Officio and found at their return that the House of Bishops who had had some speech thereof before had pronounced the same Sentence against him also A Sentence which might have produced more dangerous effects on this obstinate Prelate if he had not prevented it in time by his submission For the Sentence being reduced into Writing subscribed by the Archbishops hand and publickly pronounced in 〈◊〉 Convocation his Majesty took such just offence at so great a scandal that he committed him to Prison where he staid not long 〈◊〉 on the tenth of Iuly he made acknowledgment of his fault before the Lords of the Council and took the Oath injoyned in the sixth Canon for preserving the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England against all Popish Doctrines which were thereunto repugnant Upon the doing whereof his Majesty was graciously pleased to restore him to his former Liberty though this Submission appeared within few years after to be made either with some mental Reservation or Jesuitical Equivocation which he came prepared with For in the time of his last Sickness he declared himself to be a Member of the Church of Rome and caused it so to be expressed in his last Will and Testament that the news thereof might spread the further and his Apostacy stand upon Record to all future Ages A Scandal so unseasonably given as if the Devil himself had watched an opportunity to despite this Church But these things hapned not till after The Sentence of Suspension was no sooner pronounced but the Archbishop giving great thanks to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy for their pains and diligence in doing so much Work in so little time produced his Majesties Writ for dissolving the said Convocation which he accordingly executed and dissolved the same The Acts whereof being transmitted unto York were by the Convocation for that Province perused debated and approved without any disputing and so presented to his Majesty with their Names subscribed according to the ancient Custom There remained now nothing more to do for giving these Canons the Authority and Reputation of his Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws but the signifying of his Royal Assent and confirming them by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England And this his Majesty upon mature deliberation was graciously pleased to do commanding in the same That they should be diligently observed executed and equally kept by all his Subjects both within the Provinces of Canterbury and York respectively That for the better observation of them all Ministers should audibly and distinctly read all the said Canons in the Church or Chappel in which they Minister at the time of Divine Service The Book of the said Canons to be provided before Michaelmas at the charge of their Parishes And finally That all Archbishops and Bishops and others having Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall take special care that the said Canons and Ordinances be in all points duly observed not sparing to execute the Penalties in them severally mentioned upon any that shall wittingly or wilfully break or neglect to observe the same as they tendred the Honour of God the Peace of the Church the Tranquility of the Kingdom and their Duties and Service to his Majesty their King and Sovereign With which his Majesties Letters Patents bearing date on Iune 13. confirmatory of the Acts of the said Convocations I conclude the fourth and busiest part of this present History THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB V. Extending from the end of the Convocation Anno 1640. till the day of his Death Jan. 10 th 1644. THus have we brought this Renowned Prelate and with him the Church unto the very Battlement and Pinacle of External Glories But such is the vicissitude of humane affairs that being carried to the height they begin to fall it being no otherwise with the fortunes of States or Men then it is with Plants which have their times of taking Root their Growing Flourishing Maturity and then their Fading and decay And therefore it was very well observed by Paterculus an old Roman Historian that when either Emulation or natural Courage had given to any man an edge to ascend to the highest after they had attained that height they were according to the course of Nature to descend again and that it was no otherwise with States and Nations then with Private men It was just fourscore years from the beginning of the Reformation under Queen Eliz. to the Pacification made at Berwick when the King so unfortunately dismist his Forces and thereby left himself and his party in a worse condition then before the raising of his Army The Church till then might seem to be in the Ascendent in the point of Culminating and was then ready to decline which our Judicious Hooker had before presaged Who had assigned her fourscore years for her growth and flourishing and nothing afterwards but sorrow and disconsolation For taking notice of the inclination of the times to Sacriledge and Spoil and Rapine and finding nothing more frequent in the mouths of men then this that they which endowed Churches with Lands
him at Hampton-Court with a Petition thereunto annexed within few days after his return In which it was desired amongst other things that he would please to pass an Act for depriving the Bishops of their place and Vote in Parliament which Bill had formerly been cast out of the House of Peers as before was said and was not by the course of Parliaments to be offered again To this Demand and others which concerned Religion he returned this Answer That for preserving the peace and safety of this Kingdom from the designs of the Popish party he had and would still concur with all the just desires of his people in a Parliamentary way That for the depriving of the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament he wisht them to consider that their right was grounded upon the Fundamental Law of the Kingdom and constitution of Parliament That he conceived the taking away of the High Commission had well moderated the Inordinate power of the Clergy but if there continued any usurpations or Excesses in their jurisdictions he then neither had nor would protect them That he would willingly concur in the removal of any illegal Innovations which had crept into the Church That if the Parliament should advise to call a National Synod which might duly Examine such Ceremonies as gave just cause of offence to any he would take it into consideration and apply himself to give due satisfaction therein That he was very sorry to hear Corruptions in Religion to be Objected in such General terms since he was perswaded in his Conscience that no Church could be found upon earth that professed the true Religion with more purity of Doctrine then the Church of England at that time That by the grace of God he was resolved to maintain both the Government and Doctrine of it in their Glory and Purity and not only against all invasions of Popery but from the Irreverence of those many Schismaticks and Separatists wherewith of Late this Kingdom and the City of London did so much abound to the great dishonour and hazard both of Church and State for the suppressing of whom he required their aid and timely assistance This Resolute and Religious Answer did not so satisfie the Commons but that they were Resolved to persue the Enterprize till they had gained the Point they aimed at Some endeavours â—ad formerly been used by the Earl of Essex and the Baron of Kimbolton to perswade the Bishops so far to gratifie the importunate desires of the house of Commons as voluntarily to Relinquish their Votes in Parliament upon assurance that the Peers would be bound in Honour to preserve them in all the essential parts of their calling and Function But the Bishops who had little or nothing left to keep them up in Reputation amongst the People but their Rights of Peerage could not be easily entreated to betray themselves and become Felones de se as the Lawyers Phrase it as long as his Majesty would be pleased to maintain their Interest and in theirs His own Doubly Repulst the Apprentices are drawn in huge multitudes to cry at the Parliament doors No Bishops No Bishops Petitions daily brought against them as the Common Grievances imputing to them the decay of Trade and the obstruction of all businesses in both Houses of Parliament their Persons presented with Revilings and sometimes with stones so that they could neither come out of their Coaâ—â—es if they came by Land nor out of their Barges if they came by water without manifest danger of their lives the Abby of Westminster Violently Assaulted and as Couragiously defended by the Scholars Choiremen Officers and other Servants concluding in the death of Wiseman a Knight of Kent who having taken on himself the Conduct of the Tumult was killed by one of the Defendants with a Tile from the Battlements Hereupon Williams the â—ate Bishop of Lincoln having been translated unto York invites as many of the Bishops as were left in London to a Private Conference to be hâ—ld amongst them in the Lodgings of the Dean of Westminster where they subscribed to a Protestation and Petition to be presented to his Majesty in the House of Peers containing a Relation of the abuses offered them for some days last past together with a Declaration of their sense and meaning for the time to come The Apprehension of their own dangers inclined them willingly to any such course as visibly conduced to the preservation of their Rights as Bishops and their lives as men For both which the subscribing of this Petition and Protestation and the entring of it in the Journal of the House of Lords seems to have provided It was about the middle of Christmas when some of the Bishops were retired into the Countrey others not returned from their Recess and no fewer then five Sees either vacant or not filled Actually at the present so that no more of them met at this Assembly then the Archbishop of York the bishops of Durham Lichfield Glocester Norwich Asaph 〈◊〉 Herâ—ford Oxon Ely Peterborough and Landaff all which subscribed this last preservative for their Place and Persons And being it was the last flash of their dying light I shall not think it improper to keep it from Expiring as long as I can by serving as a Prolâ—nger to it in this present History Now the Petition and Protestation was as followeth WHereas the Petitioners are called up by Several and Respective Writs and under great Penalties to attend the Parliament and have a clear and indubitable right to vote in Bills and other mattâ—â—s whatsoever Debateable in Parliament by the Ancient Customs Laws and Statutes of this Realm and ought to be Protected by your Majesty quietly to attend and prosecute that Great Service They humbly Remonstrate and Protest before God Your Majesty and the Noble Lords and Peers now Assembled in Parliament that as they had an Indubitate Right to sit and Vote in the House of Lords so are they if they may be Protected from force and violence most Willing and Ready to Perform their Duties accordingly And that they do abominate All Actions or Opinions tending to Popery or the maintainance thereof as also all propension and Inclination to any Malignant Party or any other Side or Party whatsoever to the which their own Reasons and Conscience shall not move then to adhere But whereas they have been at several times Violently Menaced Affronted and Assaulted by multitudes of People in their coming to perform their Services in that Honourable House and lately chased away and put in danger of their lives and can find no Redress or Protection upon sundry Complaints made to both Houses in these particulars They humbly prâ—â—est before Your Majesty and the Noble House of Peers That saving unto themselves all their Right and Interess of Sitting and Voting in that House at other times they dare not Sit or vote in the House of Peers until Your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities
Of the Form of Consecration observed but not prescribed since the Reformation What kinde of Images they are which were prohibited by the Queens Injunctions The Articles of the Regal Visitation and What is to be said in answer to such passages as are found against them in the Book of Homilies The Lords Day built upon the same foundation with the other Holy dayes according to the Book of Homilies and The Act of Parliament 5.6 of EDW. vi What works of labour were permitted on the Lords Day and the other Holy dayes by the Book of Homilies The Statute 5. and 6. of EDW. vi The Injunctions of King EDW. vi and Of Queen ELIZ. Practised accordingly in the Court from that time to this Reverence required of the people at their first entrance in to the Church According to the practice of the Primitive times and The example of the Knights of the Garter c. and That example well enforced by Archbishop LAUD p. 47. Kneeling and standing when required The reverence to be used at the name of Iesus continued by Injunct 52. and Afterwards renewed by the Canon of the year 1603. with The Reasons for it The moderate proceedings of the first Reformers In reference to the Pope and The Church of ROME Observed and applauded by K. JAMES The Power of the Church asserted in the twentieth Article In the 34th reduced to practice and Of the power ascribed in Sacred Matters to the Kings of ENGLAND The Sacrament of the Lords Supper called frequently The Sacrament of the Altar as viz. by the Act of Parliament by Bishop RIDLEY Bishop LA TIMER and Some other Martyrs The Lords Table ordered to be placed where the Altar stood by the Injunctions of Q. ELIZ 1559. The Book of Orders 1561 and Advertis of the year 1565. and At the same the second Service to be said on the Sundayes and Holy Dayes The Lords Supper frequently called a Sacrifice by The Ancient Fathers By many Learned men amongst our selves Some of our godly Martyrs also and In what respect A Real Presence proved by The publick Liturgy By Bishop RIDLEY By Mr. Alex. Nowel and By Bishop BILSON The same confirmed â—y the words of the Catechism As also by the testimony of Bishop ANDREWS Bishop Morton The Article of Christs descent made figurative by Calvin and The Lord Primate but Justified to be Local By the Articles of the Church of ENGLAND The words of Mâ— Alexander Nowel and The works of Learned Bishop Bilson The necessity of Baptisme maintained by the first â—eformâ—râ— Justified in the Conference at Hampton-Court and Not gain said by any alteration in the publick Rubrick and Of the efficacy ascribed unto it by the Church Justification how divided betwixt Faith and Works In what respects ascribed to Faith by the Church of ENGL. and In what to Works Of the efficacy of good Works and The Reward belonging to them and Of the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND in that particular The great Divisions in the Church touching Predestination The stating of the point by the Church of ENGLAND Illustrated by the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy Predestinatination how defined The definition explicated The explication justified by the ancient Fathers By Bishop LATIMER and The last clause of the 17th Article The Church why silent in the point of Reprobation The absolute Decree unknown to Bishop HOOPER By Bishop LATIMER and By King Iames. Universal Redemption maintained by the Book of Articles Many plain passages in the Publick Liturgy And the testimony of our ancient Martyrs The freedom of the Will too much advanced by the 〈◊〉 Decryed as much by Luther and The Contra Remonstrants The temper of St. Augustiâ— in it Approved and imitated in the Articles of the Church of ENGL. and Her Publick Liturgie The Churches Doctrine vindicated and explained by Bishop Hoopâ—â— and by Bishop Latimer as also by the Lutheran Churches and St. Augustine himself The Churches Doctrine in the point of Falling away Made clear by some expressions of Bishop Hâ—oper Of Bishop Latimer and The Conference at Hampton Court The harmony and consent in Judgment between Bishop Hooper and Bishop Ridley and Between Bishop Ridley and Archbishop Cranmer The judgment of Archbishop Craâ—â—â—â— in the point disputed The authority ascriâ—ed to the Works of Erasmus by our first Reformers The Points which still remain in difference betwixt the Churches How far with in the possibility of Reconcilement And in what points they joyn together against the Anabaptists and Sectaries Liberty of Opinion left in other Points by the first Reformers 〈◊〉 Their discretion in so doing Approved and commended by King Iames. Anno Dom. 1573. (a) Brev. 1. Lord Brook p. 3. (b) Brev. 1. Lord Brook p. 3. Camld Rens p. 273. last Edit 1589. (d) 〈◊〉 scribendo quam concionaâ—do veâ—â—â—â—tem Evâ—ngâ—â—icam haud sigâ—â—â—er saâ—agiâ— pâ—opugâ—are Godwin Catal. â—pisc 584. (e) Hist. of Scot. lib. 7. p. 497. 1590. 1593. 1599. (f) Full. Hist. lib. 9. p. 234. (g) Cant. Dâ—me p. 469. (h) Hâ—oker Prefâ—ce (i) 〈…〉 quia 〈…〉 in communes errores Ludo. Vives in Aug. de Civit Dei Nisi quod ex illa ipsa doctrina catholici Patres vetâ—res Episcopi câ—llâ—gâ—râ—nt (k) Lib. Can. cap. De conâ—â—â—at p. 19. 1602. 1603. 1604. 1606. L. Decad. 3. 〈◊〉 Cant. Dome p. 409. (m) Injuria contumelici R. E. Clericorum exâ—gitatus in Montani partes transit B Rhen. in Tertull. (n) Câ—llâ—ct of Speeches p. 5 (o) 〈◊〉 n. Mat. 19.9 9 Bre. p. 4. p. 6. 1608. 1610. 1611. (p) Conf. at Hamp p. 85. Hist. of K. Charles by H. L. p 31. 1611. (z) Iohn 21. v. 3 6. 1614. (s) Church Hist. l. 10 p 59. t 〈…〉 Gâ—dw in Continuat 1617. Hist. Scotl. l. 7. p. 531. Nâ—m p. 534. 1618. Hist. 〈◊〉 Scot. â—â—l 5â—0 (b) 1620. Anno Dom. 1621. 1622. (g) Vide quà m praetiolâ—s vaâ—is administrant Mariae Fâ—lâ—â— Socrat. Hist. Eccl. lib. 3. (h) Cant. Dâ—â—â— p. 504 Et tani ad Sacramenta quam Sacramentalia tum Coenae Dominicae tum etiam Baptismatis Sacri in â—andem ministrantur c. Hidden wâ—rks of dâ—rk p. 47 Iâ— p. 25. (m) Hidden works p. 34. Cant. Dâ—â—m p. 276. Hiâ—d Works c. 34. Brev. p. 3. (p) Breviate p. 14. (q) 〈◊〉 p. 47. Sâ—alâ— 530. (r) Digby â—â— Calvert Iul. 25. (s) to Colverâ— Dec. 28. to K. James Octob. 24. Hâ—dd Works p. 6â— Act of Parl. A. 11 Jac. 21. c. 34. (s) D. Whites Preface to his Reply c. (t) Epist. dediâ—at to tâ—e King 16â—7 (e) Epist. dedicatâ— to Appello Caesâ— (a) Hidden 〈◊〉 p. 73. (b) Ib. p. 69. 1625. Breviate p. 6. Breviâ—te p. 6. 〈◊〉 p. 156. (a) Eâ—â— Regia p. 12. Iâ—id p 15. Cant Doom 69. Hist. K. Ch. 20. 〈…〉 Collect 〈…〉 Eâ—act Collâ—â—t of Edw. Huâ—â— 290. Sâ—r. 3. p. 102 Pag. 104. P. 107. P. 109. 1626. Cabal Breviâ—te p. 7. Pa. 8. Hist. King Charles p. 50. Ch. Hist. lib. 2.
by which the proceedings in those Courts were to be regulated and directed so as it doth appear most clearly that it was not the purpose of that King either to diminish the Authority or to interrupt the Succession of Bishops which had continued in this Church from the first Plantation of the Gospel to that very time but only to discharge them from depending on the Popes of Rome or owing any thing at all to their Bulls and Faculties which had been so chargeable to themselves and exhausted so great a part of the Treasure of the Kingdom from one year to another 3. Upon this ground he past an Act of Parliament in the 25. year of his Reign for the Electing and Consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops In which it was Enacted that on the Vacancy of every Bishoprick within his Realm his Majesty should issue out his Writ of Conge d' eslire to the Dean and Chapter of the Church so Vacant thereby enabling them to proceed to the Election of another Bishop that the Election being returned by the Dean and Chapter and ratified by the Royal Assent his Majesty should issue out his Writ to the Metropolitan of the Province to proceed unto the Confirmation of the Party Elected and that if the Party so Confirmed had not before been Consecrated Bishop of some other Church that then the Metropolitan taking to himself two other Bishops at the least should proceed unto the Consecration in such form and manner as was then practised by the Church so that as to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Consecration there was no alteration made at all Those which were Consecrated after the passing of this Statute were generally acknowledged for true and lawful Bishops by the Papists themselves or otherwise Dr. Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Westminster had never been admitted to have been one of those who assisted at the Consecrating of Cardinal Pool when he was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the death of Cranmer All which recited Statutes with every thing depending on them being abrogated by Act of Parliament in the time of Queen Mary were revived in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth and so still continue But so it was not with another alteration made in the form of exercising their jurisdiction by King Edw. 6. In the first Parliament of whose Reign it was enacted that all process out of the Ecclesiastical Courts should from thence forth be issued in the Kings Name only and under the Kings Seal of Arms contrary to the usage of the former times Which Statute being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth the Bishops and their subordinate Ministers have ever since exercised all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in their own Names and under the distinct Seals of their several Offices 4. In Doctrinals and forms of Worship there was no alteration made in the Reign of K. Hen. 8. though there were many preparations and previous dispositions to it the edge of Ecclesiastical Affairs being somewhat blunted and the people indulged a greater Liberty in consulting with the Holy Scriptures and reading many Books of Evangelical Piety then they had been formerly which having left the way more open to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and divers other learned and Religious Prelates in K. Edwards time seconded by the Lord Protector and other great ones of the Court who had their ends apart by themselves they proceeded carefully and vigorously to a Reformation In the managing of which great business they took the Scripture for their ground according to the general explication of the ancient Fathers the practise of the Primitive times for their Rule and Pattern as it was expressed to them in approved Authors No regard had to Luther or Calvin in the procedure of their work but only to the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Iesus being the Corner-stone of that excellent Structure Melancthons coming was expected Regiis Literis in Angliam vocatus as he affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius but he came not over And Calvin made an offer of his service to Arch-Bishop Cranmer Si quis mei usus esset if any use might be made of him to promote the work but the Arch-Bishop knew the man and refused the other so that it cannot be affirmed that the Reformation of this Church was either Lutheran or Calvinian in its first original And yet it cannot be denied but that the first Reformers of it did look with more respectful eyes upon the Doctrinals Government and Forms of Worship in the Lutheran Churches then upon those of Calvins platform because the Lutherans in their Doctrines Government and Forms of Worship approach't more near the Primitive Patterns than the other did and working according to this rule they retain'd many of those ancient Rites and Ceremonies which had been practised and almost all the Holy Dayes or Annual Feasts which had been generally observed in the Church of Rome Nothing that was Apostolick or accounted Primitive did fare the worse for being Popish I mean for having been made use of in times of Popery it being none of their designs to create a new Church but reform the old Such Superstitions and Corruptions as had been contracted in that Church by long tract of time being pared away that which was good and commendable did remain as formerly It was not their intent to dig up a foundation of such precious stones because some superstructures of Straw and Stubble had been raised upon it A moderation much applauded by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court whose golden Aphorisme it was That no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony then she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate p. 77. 5. The succession of Bishops continued as it did before but fitted in the form and manner of their Consecrations according to the Rules laid down with the fourth Council of Carthage celebrated Anno 407. or thereabouts and generally received in all the Provinces of the Western Church as appears by the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. Approved first by the Book of Articles and confirmed in Parliament Anno 5.6 Edw. VI. as afterwards justified by the Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation in Queen Elizabeths time Anno 1562. And by an Act of Parliament in the 8th Year of her Reign accounted of as part of our Publick Liturgies And by that book it will appear that Bishops were then looked upon as a distinct Order of themselves and not as a different degree only amongst the rest of the Presbyters For in the Preface to that Book it is said expresly That it is evident to all men diligently reading Holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons Not long after which it followeth thus viz. And therefore to the intent these Orders should be continued
and reverently used and esteemed in the Church of England it is requisite that no man not being at this present Bishop Priest or Deacon shall execute any of them except he be Called Tryed and Examined according to the form hereafter following But because perhaps it will be said that the Preface is no part of the Book which stands approved by the Articles of the Church and established by the Laws of the Land let us next look into the Body of the Book it self where in the Form of Consecrating of Arch-Bishops or Bishops we finde a Prayer in these words viz. Almighty God giver of all good things who hast appointed divers Orders of Ministers in thy Church Mercifully behold this thy Servant now called to the Work and Ministry of a Bishop and replenish him so with the truth of Doctrine and Innocency of Life that both by word and deed he may faithfully serve thee in this Office c. Here we have three Orders of Ministers Bishops Priests and Deacons the Bishop differing as much in Order from the Priest as the Priest differs in Order from the Deacon which might be further made apparent in the different Forms used in Ordering of the Priests and Deacons and the form prescribed for the Consecration of an Arch-Bishop or Bishop were not this sufficient 6. But though the Presbyters or Priests were both in Order and Degree beneath the Bishops and consequently not enabled to exercise any publick Jurisdiction in Foro judicii in the Courts of Judicature yet they retained their native and original power in Foro Conscientiae in the Court of Conscience by hearing the confession of a sorrowful and afflicted Penitent and giving him the comfort of Absolution a power conferred upon them in their Ordination in the Form whereof it is prescribed that the Bishop and the assisting Presbyters shall lay their Hands upon the Head of the Party who is to be Ordained Priest the Bishop only saying these words viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou doest forgive they are forgiven and whose sins thou doest retain they are retained In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen Which words had been impertinently and unsignificantly used if the Priest received nor thereby power to absolve a sinner upon the sense of his sincere and true repentance manifested in Confession or in any other way whatsoever And this appears yet further by the direction of the Church in point of Practice For first it is advised in the end of the second Exhortation before the receiving of the Communion that if any of the people cannot otherwise quiet his own Conscience he should repair unto his Curate or some other discreet and learned Minister of Gods Word and open his grief that he may receive such Ghostly counsel and advice and comforts as his Conscience may be relieved and that by the Ministry of Gods Word he may receive comfort and the benefit of Absolution to the quieting of his Conscience and avoiding all scruple and doubtfulness Agreeable whereunto is that memorable saying of St. Augustine viz. Qui confiteri vult ut inveniat gratiam quâ—erat sacerdotem Secondly It is prescribed in the Visitation of the Sick That the Sick person shall make a special Confession if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter and that the Priest shall thereupon Absolve him in this manner following Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to Absolve all Sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thy Offences and by his Authority committed to me I Absolve thee from all thy Sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen Which form of Absolution is plainly Authoritative and not Declarative only such as that is which follows the General Confession in the beginning of the Morning and Evening Prayer as some men would have it 7. Now that the Penitent as well in the time of Health as in extremity of Sickness may pour his Sins into the Bosom of the Priest with the more security it is especially provided by the 113 Canon of the Year 1603. That if any man Confess his secret and hidden sins to the Minister for the unburthening of his Conscience and to receive spiritual Consolation and ease of Minde from him we do not any way binde the said Minister by this our Constitution but do streightly charge and admonish him that he do not at any time reveal and make known to any person whatsoever any Crime or Offence so committed to his secresie except they be such Crimes as by the Laws of this Realm his own Life may be called in question for concealing the same under the pain of Irregularity And by incurring the condition of Irregularity the party offending doth not only forfeit all the Ecclesiastical Preferments which he hath at the present but renders himself uncapable of receiving any other for the time to come Confession made upon such security will be as saving to the Fame of the Penitent as the Absolution to his Soul In which respect it was neither untruly nor unfitly said by a learned Writer Dominus sequitur servum c. Heaven saith he waits and expects the Priests Sentence here on Earth for the Priest sits Judge on Earth the Lord follows the Servant and what the Servant bindes or looseth here on Earth Clave non errante that the Lord confirms in Heaven 8. The like Authority is vested in the Priest or Presbyter at his Ordination for officiating the Divine Service of the Church offering the Peoples Prayers to God Preaching the Word and Ministring the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation Which Offices though they may be performed by the Bishops as well as the Presbyters yet they perform them not as Bishops but as Presbyters only And this appears plainly by the Form of their Ordination in which it is prescribed that the Bishops putting the Bible into their hands shall pronounce these words Take thou authority to preach the Word and Minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be so appointed In the officiating of which Acts of Gods Divine Service the Priest or Presbyter is enjoyned to wear a Surplice of white Linnen Cloath to testifie the purity of Doctrine and innocency of Life and Conversation which ought to be in one of that Holy Profession And this St. Ierome tells us in the general Religionem Divinam alterum habitum habere in ministerio alterum in usu vitaque communi that is to say that in the Act of Ministration they used a different habit from what they use to wear at ordinary times and what this different habit was he tells us more particularly in his reply against Pelagius who it seems dislik't it and askt him what offence he thought it could be to God that Bishops Priests and Deacons or those of any inferiour Order in Administratione sacrificiorum candida veste
leave to Worship God as your selves do For if it be Gods Worship I ought to do it as well as you and if it be Idolatry you ought not to do it more then I. 19. This duty being performed at their first entrance into the Church it was next required by the Rubrick that they should reverently kneel at the reading of the publick Prayers and in the receiving of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper that they should stand up at the reading of the Apostles Creed and consequently at the Athanasian and Nicene also which are as Commentaries on that Text as also at the frequent Repetitions of the Gloria Patri which is an Abridgement of the same And in the next place it was required by the Queens Injunctions That whensoever the Name of Iesus shall be in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church pronounced that due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowness of courtesie and uncovering the heads of the mankinde as thereunto doth necessarily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed In which it is to be observed that though this Injunction was published in the first year of the Queen yet then this bowing at the Name of Iesus was lookt on as an ancient custom not only used in Queen Maries Reign but also in King Edwards time and in those before And in this case and in that before and in all others of that nature it is a good and certain rule that all such Rites as had been practised in the Church of Rome and not abolisht nor disclaimed by any Doctrine Law or Canon of the first Reformers were to continue in the same state in which they found them But this commendable custom together with all other outward reverence in Gods publick Service being every day more and more discontinued as the Puritan Faction got ground amongst us it seemed good to the Prelates and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1603. to revive the same with some enlargement as to the uncovering of the Head in all the acts and parts of publick worship For thus we have it in the 18. Canon of that year viz. No man shall cover his head in the Church or Chappel in time of Divine Service except he have some Infirmity in which case let him wear a night Cap or Coife And likewise when the Name of Iesus shall be mentioned due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present as it hath been accustomed testifying by this outward Ceremony and Gesture their inward Humility Christian Resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord Iesus Christ the true and eternal Son of God is the only Saviour of the world in whom alone all Graces Mercies and Promises of Gods love to mankinde for this life and the life to come are wholly comprised In which Canon we have not only the Doctrine that bowing is to be used to the Name of Iesus but the uses also and not alone the custom but the reasons of it both grounded on that Text of Scripture Phil. 2.10 that at the Name of IESVS every knee should bow according to such expositions as were made thereof by St. Ambrose and others of the ancient Writers 20. In matters which were meerly doctrinal and not practical also so the first Reformers carried on the work with the same equal temper as they did those which were either mixt or meerly practical And first beginning with the Pope having discharged themselves from the Supremacy which in the times foregoing he had exercised over them in this Kingdom I finde no Declaration in any publick Monument or Records of the Church of England that the Pope was Antichrist whatsoever some of them might say in their private Writings some hard expressions there are of him in the Book of Homilies but none more hard then those in the publick Litany first published by King Hen. viii at his going to Bolongue and afterwards retained in both Liturgies of King Edward vi In which the people were to pray for their deliverance from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and his detestable enormities c. This was conceived to be as indeed it was a very great scandal and offence to all those in the Realm of England who were well affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgy of Queen Elizabeth it was quite left out the better to allure them to the Divine Service of the Church as at first it did And for the Church of Rome it self they beheld it with no other eyes then as a Member of the visible Church which had for many hundred years maintained the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith though both unsound in Doctrine and corrupt in Manners Just as a man distempered in his Brain Diseased in all the parts of his Body and languishing under many putrified Sores doth still retain the being of a natural man as long as he hath sense and motion and in his lucid intervals some use of Reason They tell us in the 19. Article that the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but in matters of Faith But then they lookt upon her as a Member of the Visible Church as well as those of Ierusalem Antioch and Alexandria which are there affirmed to have erred also Erre then she might and erre she did indeed too grosly and yet might notwithstanding serve as a conduit-pipe to convey to us many of those Primitive Truths and many of those godly Rites and Ceremonies which she had superstitiously defiled In which last place it was a very pious rule that in the Reformation of a Church abuses being taken away the primitive Institution should be left remaining Tollatur abusus maneat usus as the saying is and in the first as piously observed by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court that in all Reformations he would not have any such departure from the Papists in all things that because we in some points agree with them therefore we should be accounted to be in an error Let us then see how near the first Reformers did and might come unto the Papists and yet not joyn with them in their Errors to the betraying of the Truth 21. The Pope they deprived of that unlimitted Supremacy and the Church of Rome of that exorbitant power which they formerly challenged over them yet did they neither think it fit to leave the Church without her lawful and just Authority nor saâ—e to put her out of the protection of the Supream Governour Touching the first it was resolved in the 20. Article That the Church hath power not only to decree Rites and Ceremonies but also in Controversies of Faith as the English Ecclesia habet Ritus Ceremonias Statuendi jus in fidei controversiis Authoritatem as it is in the Latine And so it stands in the Original Acts of the Convocation Anno 1562. and publisht in the self same words both in Latine and English Afterwards in the year
which being the very words of the Apostle Eph. 1.4 are generally interpreted by the ancient Fathers of those who do believe in Christ For thus St. Ambrose amongst others Sicut elegit nos in ipso as he hath chosen us in him Prescius enim Deus omnes scit qui credituri essent in Christum For God saith he by his general Presence did fore-know every man that would believe in Christ The like saith Chrysostom on the Text. And that our first Reformers did conceive so it appears by that of Bishop Latimer in his Sermon on the third Sunday after the Epiphany When saith he we hear that some be chosen and some be damned let us have good hope that we be among the chosen and live after this hope that is uprightly and godly then shall we not be deceived Think that God hath chosen those that believe in Christ and Christ is the Book of Life If thou believest in him then art thou written in the Book of Life and shall be saved Secondly The Doctrine of Predestination as before laid down may be further proved out of the last clause of the said 17. Article where it is said That we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in the word of God Then which nothing can be more repugnant to the Doctrine of Predestination delivered by the Contra-Remonstrants whither Supra-lapsarian or Sub-lapsarian is no great matter which restrains Predestination unto Life to a few particulars without respect had to their Faith in Christ or to Christs Sufferings and Death for them which few particulars so predestinated to life eternal shall as they teach us by an irresistable Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the Holy Spirit be preserved from falling away from grace and favour 33. Such is the Churches Doctrine in the point of Election or Predestination unto life but in the point of Reprobation or Predestination unto death she is utterly silent leaving it to be gathered upon Logical Inferences from that which is delivered by her in the point of Election for Contrariorum contraria est ratio as Logicians say though that which is so gathered ought rather to be called a Dereliction then a Reprobation No such absolute irreversible and irrespective decree of Reprobation taught or maintained in any publick Monument or Record of the Church of England by which the far greatest part of mankinde are prae-ordained and consequently prae-condemned to the pit of Torments without respect had unto their sins as the Supra-lapsarians or to their credulities as generally is maintained by the Sublapsarians in the Schools of Calvin Much I am sure there is against it in the Writings of Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer who took great pains in the first carrying on of the Reformation and therefore we may judge by them of the Churches meaning in that particular For in the Preface to a Book written by Iohn Hooper afterwards Bishop of Glocester containing an Exposition of the Ten Commandments and published Anno 1550. we shall finde it thus viz. That Cain was no more excluded from the promise of Christ till he excluded himself then Abel Saul then David Iudas then Peter Esau then Iacob that God is said to have hated Esau not because he was dis-inherited of eternal Life but in laying his Mountains and his Heritage waste for the Dragons of the Wilderness Mal. 1.3 That the threatnings of God against Esau if he had not of his wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of Grace should no more have hindered his Salvation then Gods threatnings against Ninive c That it is not a Christian mans part to say That God hath written fatal Laws as the stoick and with necessity of destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other head-long into Hell that the cause of Rejection or Damnation is sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel c. And in a Sermon on the third Sunday after Epiphany we finde Bishop Latimer speaking thus viz. That if the most are damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would that all men should be saved but they themselves procure their own damnation and despise the Passion of Christ by their wicked and inordinate living Thus also in his fourth Sermon Preached in Lincolnshire That Christ only and no man else merited Remission Iustification and eternal felicity for as many as will believe the same that Christ shed as much Blood for Iudas as for Peter that Peter believed it and therefore was saved that Iudas would not believe therefore was condemned the fault being in him only and no body else More of which passages might be gathered from the Writings of those godly Martyrs were not these sufficient And though the Calvinian fancies in the points of Election and Reprobation got so much ground on this Church that they began to be obtruded on the people for the Doctrines of it yet were they vigorously opposed by some of our Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes by Dr. Harsnet and Mr Banret in the Pulpit and Peter Baro and Dr. Overald in the Divinity Schools of Cambridge in Queen Elizabeths time by Dr. Bancroft then Lord Bishop of London in the Conference at Hampton-Court Anno 1603. being the first year of King Iames and finally by King Iames himself refusing as he did to admit the nine Articles of Lambeth containing all the points and particularities of the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestination and Reprobation among the Articles of Religion here by Law establisht when Dr. Reynolds in that Conference did desire it of him But nothing better proves the Churches Doctrine in these points than the Church it self by holding sorth the universal Redemption of all mankinde by the Death of Christ the free co-operation of the will of man with the Grace of God in the chief acts of his Conversion the possibility of falling into grievous sins Gods displeasure and consequently from the grace received all which are utterly destructive of Calvins Doctrine in this point and that not of the whole Machina only but of every part and parcel of that ruinous building as will appear by the particulars hereafter following 34. And first the Universal Redemption of all mankinde by the death of Christ hath been so clearly and explicitely delivered by the Church of England that nothing can be more plain For in the second Article it is said expresly That Christ suffered was Crucified Dead and Buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original Guilt but also for the actual sins of men Agreeable whereunto it is declared Art 31. That the offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption Propitiation
understood no otherwise then as it is before laid down appears by this Gloss of Bishop Hooper on that Text of St. Iohn viz. No man cometh to me except my Father draw him chap. 6.44 Many saith he understand the words in a wrong sense as if God required no more in a reasonable man than in a dead post and marke not the words which follow Every man that heareth and learneth of my Father cometh to me God draweth with his word and the Holy Ghost but mans duty is to hear and learn that is to say to receive the grace offered consent to the promise and not repugn the God that calleth The like occurs in Bishop Latimers Sermon on the Sunday commonly called Septuagesima in which we find That seeing the preaching of the Gospel is universal it appeareth that God would have all mankinde saved and that the fault is not in him if they be damned for it is written thus Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all men be saved but we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and will not take notice when it is offered to us It cannot be denyed but that the same Doctrine is maintained by the Arminians as they call them and that it is the very same with that of the Church of Rome as appears by the Council of Trent cap. De fructu justificationis merito bonorum operum Can. 3.4 But then it must be granted also that it is the Doctrine of the Melanctonian Divines or Moderate Lutherans as was confessed by Andreas vega one of the chief sticklers in the Council of Trent who on the agitating of the point did confess ingenuously that there was no difference betwixt the Lutherans and that Church touching that particular And then it must be granted also that it was the Doctrine of St. Augustine according to that divine saying of his Sine gratia Dei praeveniente ut volimus subsequente ne frustra volimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus so that if the Church of England must be Arminian and the Arminians must be Papist because they agree together in this particular the Melanctonian Divines among the Protestants yea and St. Augustine himself must be Papist also 37. Such being the freedom of the will in laying or not laying hold upon those means which are offered by Almighty God for our Salvation 〈◊〉 cannot be denyed but that there is a freedom also of the will in standing unto Grace received or departing from it Certain I am that it is so resolved by the Church of England in the 16th Article for Confession in which it is declared That after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives which is the very same with that of the 14th Article in King Edward's Book of the year 1557. where plainly the Church teacheth a possibility of falling or departing from the grace of the Holy Ghost which is given unto us and that our rising again and the amending of our lives upon such a rising is a matter of contingency only and no way necessary on Gods part to assure us of Conform to which we finde Bishop Hooper thus discoursing in the said Preface to his exposition of the Ten Commandments The cause of Rejection or Damnation saith he is sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel or else after he hath received it by accustomed doing of ill falleth either into a contempt of the Gospel and will not study to live thereafter or else hateth the Gospel because it condemneth his ungodly life And we finde Bishop Latimer discoursing thus in his eighth Sermon in Lincolnshire Those persons saith he that be not come yet to Christ or if they were come to Christ be fallen again from him and so lost their Iustification as there be many of us when we fall willingly into sin against Conscience we lose the favour of God our Salvation and finally the Holy Ghost And before c. 6. thus But you will say saith he How shall I know that I am in the Book of Life How shall I try my self to be the Elect of God to everlasting life I answer First We may know that we may be one time in the Book and another time come out again as it appeareth by David who was written in the Book of Life but when he sinned he at that time was out of the Book of the favour of God until he repented and was sorry for his faults so that we may be in the Book one time and afterwards when we forget God and his Word and do wickedly we come out of the Book that is out of Christ who is the Book Which makes the point so clear and evident on the Churches part that when it was moved by Doctor Reynolds at Hampton-Court that the words Nec tolaliter nec finaliter might be added into the Clause of that Article the motion was generally rejected and the Article left standing in the same terms in which it then stood By which we may the better judge of some strange expressions amongst the most Rigid sort of the Contra-Remonstrants especially of that of Roger Dontelock by whom it is affirmed that if it were possible for any one man to commit all the sins over again which have been acted in the world it would neither frustrate his Election nor alienate him from the love and favour of Almighty God for which consult the Appendix to the Presseor Declaratio Sententiae Remonstrantium Printed at Leyden Anno 1616. 38. Such is the Doctrine of this Church and such the Judgement of those Reverend Bishops and right godly Martyrs in the Predestinarian Controversies before remembred And though I have insisted on those two alone yet in theirs I include the Judgement of Cranmer Ridley and the rest of those learned men who laboured in the great work of the Reformation Some difference there had been betwixt Cranmer and Ridley on the one side and Hooper only on the other in matter of Ceremony in which Hooper at the last submitted to the other two But in all the Doctrinal truths of their Religion there was a full consent between them which appears plainly in this passage of a Letter sent from Ridley to Hooper when they were both prisoners for the same cause though in several places But now my dear Brother saith he for as much as I understand by your works which I have but superâ—icially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against which the world so rageth in these our dayes Howsoever in times past in certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your Wisdom and my simplicity I grant have a little jarred each of us following the aboundance of his own sense and Iudgement Now I say be you
towards which the Testimonial Letters sent from the Church of Amsterdam did not help a little in which Letters he stands commended for a man of unblamable life sound Doctrine and fair behaviour as may be seen at large in the Oration which was made at his Funeral in the Divinity Schools of Leyden on the 22. of October Anno 1609. During his sitting in that Chair he drew unto him a great part of that University who by the Piety of the man his powerful Arguments his extreme diligence in the place and the clear light of Reason which appeared in all his Discourses were so wedded unto his Opinions that no time nor trouble could divorce them For Arminius dying in the year 1609. as before was said the heats betwixt his Scholars and those of the contrary perswasion were rather increased than abated the more increased for want of such a prudent Moderator as had before saved and preserved these Churches from a publick Rupture The Breach between them growing wider each side thought fit to seek the Countenance of the State and they did accordingly For in the year 1610. the Followers of Arminius address their Remonstrance containing the Antiquity of their Doctrines and the substance of them to the States of Holland which was encountred presently by a Contra-Remonstrance exhibited by those of Calvins Party From hence the names of Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants so frequent in their Books and Writings till the Remonstrants were condemned in the Synod of Dort and either forced to yield the cause or quit their Country each Party in the mean time had the opportunity to disperse their Doctrines in which the Remonstrants gained exceedingly upon their Adversaries For the whole Controversie being reduced to these five Points viz. the Method of Predestination the Efficacie of Christs Death the operations of Grace both before and after mans Conversion and perseverance in the same the Parties were admitted to a publick Conference at the Hague in the year 1611. in which the Remonstrants were conceived to have had much the better of the day But these Tongue-Combates did produce a further mischief than was suspected at the first For the Calvinians hoping to regain by Power what they lost by Argument put themselves under the Protection of Maurice van Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of the Forces of the United Provinces both by Sea and Land The Remonstrants on the other side applied themselves unto Iohn Olden Barnevelt a principal Counsellor of State and of great Authority in his Country Who fearing the Greatness of the Prince and having or thinking that he had some cause to doubt that he aimed at an absolute Soverainty over those Estates did chearfully entertain the offer in hope to form such a Party by them as with the help of some other good Patriots might make a sufficient Counter-ballance against that design But Barnevelts projects being discovered he was first seized on by the Prince together with Grotius Liedenburgius and others of his chief Adherents and that being done he shewed himself with his Forces before such Towns and Cities as had declared in favour of them Reducing them under his Command changing their Magistrates and putting new Garrisons into them Next followed the Arraignment and death of Barnevelt contrary to the Fundamentall Laws both of his native Country and the common Union whose death occasioned a general dejection as well it might amongst those of the Remonstrant Party and their dejection animated the Calvinians to refer their differences to a National Council which thereupon was intimated to be held at Dort one of the principle Towns of Holland This Council being thus resolved on their next care was to invite to their assistance some Divines out of all the Churches of Calvins Platform and none else which did sufficiently declare that they intended to be both Parties and Judges as in fine it proved For unto this Convention assembled the most Rigid Calvinists not only of the United Provinces but also of all the Churches of High Germany and amongst the Switz and from the City of Geneva whom it most concerned From France came none because the King upon good Reason of State had commanded the contrary and the Scots much complained that they were not suffered by King Iames to send their Commissioners thither with the rest of the Churches For though King Iames had nominated Balcanquel to that imployment in the name of the Kirk yet that could give them no contentment From England the King sent Dr. George Carleton Bishop of Landaff Dr. Ios. Hall Dean of Worcester Dr. Iohn Davenant Master of Queens Colledge and Lady Margarets Professor in Cambridge and Dr. Sam. Ward Master of Sydney Colledge in the same University And this he did that by the Countenance of his power and by the Presence of his Divines he might support the Party of the Prince of Orange and suppress his Adversaries On the third of November they began the Synod But things were carried there with such inequality that such of the Remonstrants as were like to be elected by their several Classes were cited and commanded to appear as Criminals only and being come could not be suffered to proceed to a Disputation unless they would subscribe to such conditions as they conceived to be destructive to their Cause and their Conscience too Which being refused they were expelled the House by Bogerman who sate President there in a most fierce and bitter Oration condemned without answering for themselves and finally for not subscribing to their own condemnation compelled to forsake their native Country with their Wives and Children and to beg their bread even in desolate places What influence those quarrells had amongst our selves and what effects that Synod did produce in the Church of England we shall see hereafter when the same Points come to be agitated and debated on this side of the Seas His Majesty having thus made himself the Master of his Designs both at home and abroad and being recovered from a dangerous sickness which had fallen upon him at New-Market in the year 1619. resolved on such a work of Magnificent Piety as might preserve his name and memory of succeeding Ages To which end upon Midlent Sunday Anno 1620. accompanied by the Prince attended by the Marquiss of Buckingham the Bishops Lords and most of the principal Gentlemen about the Court he intended to visit St. Pauls From Temple-bar he was conducted in most solomn manner by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and at his entrance into the Church received under a Canopy by the Dean and Canons attired in rich Copes and other Ecclesiastical Habits Being by them brought into the Quire he heard with very great Reverence and Devotion the Divine Service of the day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbuts accompanied and intermingled with such excellent voices that seemed rather to enchant than chant The Divine Service being done he went unto a place prepared where he heard the Sermon
That there was no design in the King or Prince or in any of the Court or Court-Bishops of what name soever to alter the Religion here by Law established or that the Prince was posted into Spain of purpose that he might be perverted or debauched from it But the best is that he which gave the Wound hath made the Plaister and such a Plaister as may assuredly heal the Sore without troubling any other Chyrurgeon It is affirmed by him who published the Breviate of our Bishops Life That he was not only privy to this Journey of the Prince and Buckingham into Spain but that the Journey was purposely plotted to pervert him in his Religion and reconcile him to Rome And this he makes apparent by the following Prayer found amongst others in the Bishops Manual of Devotions than which there can be nothing more repugnant to the Propositions â—or proof of which it is so luckily produced Now the said Prayer 〈◊〉 thus verbatim viz. O Most merciful God and gracious Father the Prince hath put himself to a great Adventure I humbly beseech thee make clear the way before him give thine Angels charge over him be with him thy self in Mercy Power and Protection in every step of his Iourney in every moment of his Time in every Consultation and Address for Action till thou bring him back with Safety Honour and Contentment to do thee service in this place Bless his most truly and faithful Servant the Lord Duke of Buckingham that he may be diligent in Service provident in Business wise and happy in Counsel for the honour of thy Name the good of the Church the preservation of the Prince the contentment of the King the satisfaction of the State Preserve him I humbly beseech thee from all Envy that attends him and bless him that his eyes may see the Prince safely delivered to the King and State and after it to live long in happiness to do thee and them service through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen And with this Prayer so plainly destructive of the purpose for which it was published I shut up the Transactions of this present year We will begin the next with the dismission of the Archbishop of Spalato a man defamed by the Italians at his coming hither and as much reproached by the English at his going hence His name was Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Fact and Primate of Dalmatia in Title Such anciently and of right those Archbishops were till the Bishop of Venice being made a Patriarch by Pope Eugenius the Fourth Anno 1450. assumed that Title to himself together with a Superintendency over all the Churches of that Country as subordinate to him He had been long conversant with the Fathers and Ancient Councils By this Light he discerned the Darkness of the Church of Rome and the blind Title which the Popes had for their Supremacy Inclining to the Protestant Religion he began to fear that his own Country would prove too hot for him at the last and therefore after he had sate in the See of Spalato about fourteen years he quitted his Preferments there and betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England Anno 1616. Extremely honoured at his first coming by all sorts of people entertained in both Universities with solemn Speeches presented complemented feasted by the great Lords about the Court the Bishops and some principal Persons about the City Happy was he that could be honoured with his Company and satisfied with beholding his comely presence though they understood not his Discourses Commended by King Iames at first for a constant Sojourner and Guest to Archbishop Abbot in whose Chappel at Lambeth he assisted at the Consecration of some English Bishops Made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor and by himself made Rector of West-Illesby in the County of Berks A Revenue not so great as to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of Covetousness for the sake of filthy Lucre nor so contemptible but that he might have lived plentifully and contentedly on it During his stay here he published his learned and elaborate Book entituled De Republica Ecclesiastica never yet answered by the Papists and perhaps unanswerable He had given great trouble to the Pope by his defection from that Church and no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his coming over unto ours The foundring of so great a Pillar seemed to prognosticate that the Fabrick of that Church was not like to stand And yet he gave greater blows to them by his Pen than by the defection of his person the wound so given being conceived to be incurable In these respects those of that Church bestirred themselves to disgrace his person devising many other causes by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those parts wherein he durst no longer tarry but finding little credit given to their libellous Pamphlets they began to work upon him by more secret practises insinuating That he had neither that Respect nor those Advancements which might encourage him to stay That the new Pope Gregory the Fifteenth was his special Friend That he might chuse his own Preferments and make his own Conditions if he would return And on the other side they cunningly wrought him out of credit with King Iames by the Arts of Gundamore Embassadour at that time from the King of Spain and lessened his esteem amongst the Clergy by some other Artifices So that the poor man being in a manner lost on both sides was forced to a necessity of swallowing that accursed bait by which he was hooked over to his own destruction For having sollicited King Iames by several Letters the last of them bearing date on the third of February to licence his departure home he was by the King disdainfully turned over to the High-Commission or rather to a special Commission directed to Archbishop Abbot the Lord Keeper Lincoln the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester with certain of the Lords of the Privy Council These Lords assembling at Lambeth on the 30th of March and having first heard all his Excuses and Defences commanded him to depart the Realm within twenty days or otherwise to expect such punishment as by the Laws of the Land might be laid upon him for holding Intelligence by Letters Messages c. with the Popes of Rome To this Sentence he sorrowfully submitted protesting openly That he would never speak reproachfully of the Church of England the Articles whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable and none of them to be Heretical as appears by a Book entituled SPALATO's Shiftings in Religion published as it was conceived by Laud's especial Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham How well or rather how ill he performed this promise and what became of him after his return to Rome is not now my business The man is banished out of England and my History leads me next into Spain not Italy The
the execution of such penal Laws as were made against them The People hereupon began to cry out generally of a Toleration and murmur in all places against the King as if he were resolved to grant it And that they might not seem to cry out for nothing a Letter is dispersed abroad under the name oâ— Archbishop Abbot In this Letter his Majesty is told That by granting any such Toleration he should set up the most damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the whore of Babylon That it would be both hateful to God grievous to his good Subjects and contradictory to his former Writings in which he had declared their Doctrines to be Superstitious Idolatrous and detestable That no such toleration could be granted but by Parliament only unless it were his purpose to shew his people that he would throw down the Laws at his pleasure That by granting such a Toleration there must needs follow a discontinuance of the true Profession of the Gospel and what could follow thereupon but Gods heavy wrath and indignation both on himself and all the Kingdom That the Prince was not only the Son of his Flesh but the Son of his People also and therefore leaves him to consider what an errour he had run into by sending him into Spain without the privity of his Council and consent of his Subjects And finally That though the Princes return might be safe and prosperous yet they that drew him into that dangerous and desperate Action would not scape unpunished This was the substance of the Letter whosoever was the Writer of it For Abbot could not be so ill a Statesman having been long a Privy Councellour as not to know that he who sitteth at the Helm must stear his course according unto wind and weather And that there was a very great difference betwixt such personal indulgencies as the King had granted in that case to his Popish Subjects and any such Publick Exercise of their Superstitions as the word Toleration doth import and howsoever that it was a known Maxime in the Arts of Government that necessity over-rules the Law and that Princes many times must act for the publick good in the infringing of some personal and particular rights which the Subjects claim unto themselves Nor could he be so ignorant of the Kings affections as to believe that the King did really intend any such toleration though possibly he might be content on good reason of State that the people should be generally perswaded of it For well he knew that the King loved his Soveraignty too well to quit any part thereof to the Pope of Rome and consequently to part with that Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters as needs he must have done by a Toleration which he esteemed the fairest Flower in the Royal Garland In which respect King Iames might seem to be made up of Caesar and Pompey as impatient of enduring an equal as of admitting a Superiour in his own Dominions Or had he been a greater stranger at the Court than can be imagined yet could he not be ignorant that it was the Kings chief interest to preserve Religion in the same state in which he found it and could not fear but that he would sufficiently provide for the safety of it Upon which Premises it may be rationally inferred that Abbot was only the reputed Author of this Bastard Letter and not the natural Parent of it Nor was the Toleration more feared by the English Protestants than hoped for by the Papists here and presumed by the Pope himself In confidence whereof he nominated certain Bishops to all the Episcopal Sees of England to exercise all manner of Jurisdiction in their several and respective Diocesses as his false and titular Bishops did in the Church of Ireland The intelligence whereof being given to the Jesuites here in England who feared nothing more than such a thing one of them who formerly had free access to the Lord Keeper Williams acquaints him with this mighty secret assuring him that he did it for no other reason but because he knew what a great exasperation it would give the King and consequently how much it would incense him against the Catholicks Away with this Intelligence goes the Lord Keeper to the King who took fire thereat as well as he and though it was somewhat late at night commanded to go to the Spanish Embassadour and to require him to send unto the King his Master to take some course that those proceedings might be stopt in the Court of Rome or otherwise that the Treaty of the Match should advance no further The Lord Keeper finds the Embassadour ready to send away his Pacquet who upon hearing of the news commanded his Currier to stay till he had represented the whole business in a Letter to the King his Master On the receiving of which Letter the King imparts the same to the Popes Nuncio in his Court Who presently sends his dispatches to the Pope acquainting him with the great inconveniences and unavoidable dangers of this new design which being stopt by this device and the Treaty of the Match ending in a rupture not long after the same Jesuite came again to the Lord Keepers Lodging and in a fair and facetious manner thanked him most humbly for the good office he had done for that Society for breaking and bearing off which blow all the friends they had in Rome could find no buckler Which Story as I heard from his Lordships own mouth with no small contentment so seemed he to be very well pleased with the handsomness of the trick which was put upon him Laud was not sleeping all this while It was not possible that a man of such an Active Spirit should be out of work and he had work enough to do in being the Dukes Agent at the Court The Marquiss was made Duke of Buckingham at his being in Spain to make him more considerable in the eye of that Court and this addition to his honours was an addition also to that envy which was borne against him Great Favourites have for the most part many enemies such as are carefully intent upon all occasions which may be made use of to supplant them Which point the Duke had so well studied that though he knew himself to be a very great Master of the Kings affections yet was he apprehensive of the disadvantages to which this long absence would expose him It therefoâ—e concerned him nearly to make choice of some intelligent and trusty friend whom he might confide in and he was grown more confident of Laud than of any other from whom he might receive advertisement of all occurrences and such advice as might be most agreeable to the complexion of affairs Nor did it happen otherwise than he expected for long he had not been in Spain when there were many fearings of him in the Court of England many strange whisperings into the ears of the King concerning the abuse of his Royal Favours the general
with the sins of the State But then he will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Gen. 49. Nay scatter Iacob and Israel it self for them Which said in general he descended to a more particular application putting his Auditory in mind of those words of Tacitus That nothing gave the Romans powerful enemies though they were more advantage against the ancient Britains than this Quod Factionibus studiis trahebantur That they were broken into Factions and would not so much as take counsel and advice together And they smarted for it But I pray what is the difference for men not to meet in counsel and to fall to pieces when they meet If the first were our Fore-fathers errour God of his mercy grant this second be not ours And for the Church that is as the City too just so Doctrine and Discipline are the Walls and the Towers of it But be the one never so true and the other never so perfect they come both short of Preservation if that body be not at unity in it self The Church take it Catholick cannot stand well if it be not compacted together into an holy unity with Faith and Charity And as the whole Church is in regard of the affairs of Christendom so is each particular Church in the Nation and Kingdom in which it sojourns If it be not at unity in it self it doth but invite Malice which is ready to do hurt without any invitation and it ever lies with an open side to the devil and all his batteries So both Church and State then happy and never till then when they are at unity within themselves and one with another Well both State and Church owe much to Vnity and therefore very little to them that break the peace of either Father forgive them they know not what they do But if unity be so necessary how may it be preserved in both How I will tell you Would you keep the State in Vnity In any case take heed of breaking the peace of the Church The peace of the State depends much upon it For divide Christ in the minds of men or divide the minds of men about their hopes of Salvation in Christ and tell me what unity there will be Let this suffice so far as the Church is an ingredient into the unity of the State But what other things are concurring to the unity of it the State it self knows better than I can teach This was good Doctrine out of doubt The Preacher had done his part in it but the hearers did not the Parliament not making such use of it as they should have done At such time as the former Parliament was adjourned to Oxon the Divinity School was prepared for the House of Commons and a Chair made for the Speaker in or near the place in which his Majesties Professor for Divinity did usually read his publick Lectures and moderate in all publick Disputations And this first put them into conceit that the determining of all Points and Controversies in Religion did belong to them As Vibius Rufus in the Story having married Tullies Widow and bought Caesars Chair conceived that he was then in a way to gain the Eloquence of the one and the power of the other For after that we find no Parliament without a Committee for Religion and no Committee for Religion but what did think it self sufficiently instructed to manage the greatest Controversies of Divinity which were brought before them And so it was particularly with the present Parliament The Commons had scarce setled themselves in their own House but Mountague must be called to a new account for the Popery and Arminianism affirmed to have been maintained by him in his books In which Books if he had defended any thing contrary to the established Doctrine of the Church of England the Convocation of the two was the fitter Judge And certainly it might have hapned ill unto him the King not being willing to engage too far in those Emergences as the case then stood if the Commons had not been diverted in pursuit of the Duke of Buckingham which being a more noble game they laid this aside having done nothing in it but raised a great desire in several Members of both Houses to give themselves some satisfaction in those doubtful Points To which end a Conference was procured by the Earl of Warwick to be held at York House between Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester and White Dean of Carlile on the one side Morton then of Lichfield and Preston then of Lincolns-Inn of whom more hereafter on the other The Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Pembroke many other Lords and many other persons of inferiour quality being present at it To this Conference which was holden on the eleventh of this February another was added the next week on the seventeenth In which Mountague acted his own part in the place of Buckeridge the Concourse being as great both for the quality and number of the persons as had been at the former And the success was equal also The Friends and Fautors of each side giving the victory to those as commonly it happens in such cases whose cause they favoured After this we hear no more of Mountague but the passing of some Votes against him in the April following which â—eats being over he was kept cold till the following Parliament And then he shall be called for In the mean time the King perceiving that the Commons had took no notice of his own occasions gave order to Sir Richard Weston then Chancellour of his Exchequer to mind them of it by whom he represented to them the return of the last years Fleet and the want of Money to satisfie the Mariners and Souldiers for their Arrâ—ars That he had prepared a new Fleet of forty Sail ready to set forth which could not stir without a present supply of money And that without the like supply not only his Armies which were quartered upon the Coasts would disband or mutiny but that the Forces sent for Ireland would be apt to rebell and therefore he desired to know without more adoe what present supply he must depend upon from them that accordingly he might shape his course These Propositions being made Clem. Coke a younger Son of Sir Edward Coke who had successively been Chief Justice of either Bench obstructs the Answer by this rash and unhandsome expression That it was better to dye by a Forreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home Which general words were by one Turner a Doctor of Physick and then a Member of that House restrained and applied more particularly to the Duke of Buckingham The Commons well remembred at what Point they were cut off in the former Parliament and carefully watcht all advantages to resume it in this They had begun a great clamour against him on the first of March for staying a French Ship called the St. Peter of Newhaven and Turner now incites them to a higher distemper by six
Circle of Order which without apparent danger both to Church and State may not be broken his Majesty will proceed against them with that severity as upon due consideration had of their Offences and Contempts they and every one of them should deserve c. Such was the tenor of his Majesties Proclamation of Iune 14. And the effect thereof was this The House of Commons in pursuance of their Quarrel against Mountague's Books had referred the consideration of it to their Committee for Religion from whom Pym brought a Report on the eighteenth of April concerning some Arminian and Popish Tenents comprized in them It was thereupon Voted in that House 1. That he had disturbed the Peace of the Church by publishing Doctrines contrary to the Articles of the Church of England and the Book of Homilies 2. That there are divers Passages in his Book especially against those he calleth Puritans apt to move Sedition betwixt the King and his Subjects and between Subject and Subject 3. That the whole frame and scope of his Books is to discourage the well affected in Religion from the true Religion established in the Church and to incline them and as much as in him lay to reconcile them to POPERY This gave great animation to the opposite Party who thought it a high point of Wisdom to assault the man whom they perceived to have been smitten with this terrible Thunder-bolt and not to lose the opportunity of a Parliament-time when the Press is open to all comers for publishing their Books against him Some of them we have named already besides which there appeared so many in the List against him viz. Goad â—eatly Ward Wotton Prynne and Burton that the Encounter seemed to be betwixt a whole Army and a single Person Laud and some of those Bishops on the other side incouraged by his Majesties Proclamation endeavoured to suppress those Books which seemed to have been published in defiance of it some of them being called in some stopped at the Press some Printers questioned for Printing as the Authors were for writing such prohibited Pamphlets Burton and Prynne amongst the rest were called into the High-Commission and at the point to have been censured when a Prohibition comes from Westmâ—nster-Hall to stay the Proceedings in that Court contrary to his Majesties Will and Pleasure expressed so clearly and distinctly in the said Proclamation Which Prohibition they tendred to the Court in so rude a manner that Laud was like to have laid them by the heels for their labour From henceforth we must look for nothing from both these hot-spurs but desire of revenge a violent opposition against all Persons whatsoever who did not look the same way with them and whatsoever else an ill-governed Zeal could excite them too And now being fallen upon these men it may not be amiss to say something of them in this place considering how much they exercised the patience of the Church and State in the Times succeeding Burton had been a Servant in the Closet to his Sacred Majesty when he was Prince of Wales and being once in the Ascendent presumed that he should culminate before his time He took it very ill that he was not sent as one of the Chaplains into Spain when the Prince was there but worse that Laud then Bishop of St. Davids should execute the Office of Clerk of the Closet at such time as Bishop Neil was sick and he be looked on no otherwise than as an underling still Vexed with that Indignity as he then conceived it he puts a scandalous Paper into the hands of the King for which and for some other Insolencies and factious carriage he was commanded by him to depart the Court into which being never able to set foot again he breathed nothing but rage and malice against his Majesty the Bishops and all that were in place above him and so continued till the last it being the custom of all those whom the Court casts out to labour by all means they can to out-cast the Court Prynne lived sometimes a Commoner of Oriall Colledge and afterwards entred himself a Student in Lincolns-Inn where he became a great follower of Preston then the Lecturer there Some parts of Learning he brought with him which afterwards he improved by continual Study and being found to be of an enterprising nature hot-spirited and eager in pursuit of any thing which was put into him he was looked upon by Preston as the fittest person to venture upon such Exploits which a more sober and considerate man durst not have appeared in Being once put into the road it was not possible to get him out of it again by threats or punishments till growing weary of himself when he had no Enemy in a manner to encounter with he began to look up at the last and setled on more moderate and quiet courses becoming in the end a happy Instrument of Peace both to Church and State And now I am fallen on Preston also I shall add something of him too as being a man which made much noise in the World about this time A man he was beyond all question of a shrewd Wit and deep Comprehensions an excellent Master in the Art of Insinuation and one who for a long time sate at the Helm and steared the Course of his Party as one well observeth Toward the latter end of the Reign of King Iames he was brought into the Court by the Duke of Buckingham in hope to gain a Party by him There he was gazed on for a time like a new Court-Meteâ—r and having flashed and blazed a little went out again and was forgotten in case he did not leave as most Meteors do an ill smell behind him Much was he cried up by his Followers in the University City and all places else as if he might have chosen his own Mitre and had been as likely a man as any to have been trusted with the Great Seal in the place of Williams but he was not principled for the Court nor the Court for him For long he had not been in that School of Policy but he found other men as wise and cunning as himself and that he could not govern there with such an absolute Omni-regency as he had done in the Families of private Gentlemen in most parts of the Kingdom Nor was it long before the Duke began to have some suspicion of him as one not to be trusted in his Majesties Service when it seemed any way to cross with the Puritan Interest which he drove on with so much openness in the Court as was not proper for a man of so famed a cunning But that which lost him at the last was a Letter by him written to a great Peer of the Realm in which he spake disadvantageously enough if not reproachfully of the Court and signified withal how little hope there was of doing any good in that place for the advancement of the Cause Which Letter or a Copy of it being unluckily
reject the sense of the Iesuites Arminians and all others wherein they differ from us Which Declaration of the Commons as it gave great animation to those of the Calvinian Party who entertained it with the like ardency of affection as those of Ephesus did the Image of DIANA which fell down from heaven so gave it great matter of discourse to most knowing men The Points were intricate and weighty such as in all Ages of the Church had exercised the wits of the greatest Scholars Those which had taken on them to declare for truth that which they took to be the sense and meaning of the Articles in those intricate Points were at the best no other than a company of Lay Persons met together on another occasion who though they might probably be supposed for the wisest men could not in reason be relied on as the greatest Clerks And therefore it must needs be looked on as a kind of Prodigie that men unqualified and no way authorized for any such purpose should take upon them to determine in such weighty matters as were more proper for a National or Provincial Council But being it proceeded from the House of Commons whose power began to grow more formidable every day than other no body durst adventure a Reply unto it till Laud himselâ— by whose procurement his Majesties Declaration had been published laying aside the Dignity of his Place and Person thought fit to make some Scholia's or short notes upon it Which not being published at that time in Print for ought I have either heard or seen but found in the rifling of his Study amongst the rest of his Papers I shall present unto the Reader in these following words And first saith he the Publick Acts of the Church in matters of Doctrine are Canons and Acts of Councils as well for expounding as determining The Acts of the High Commission are not in this sense Publick Acts of the Church nor the meeting of a few or more Bishops Extra Concilium unless they be by lawful Authority called to that work and their decision approved by the Church Secondly The currant Exposition of Writers is a strong probable argument De sensu Canonis Ecclesiae vel Articuli yet but probable The currant Exposition of the Fathers themselves have sometimes missed Sensum Ecclesiae Thirdly Will you reject all sense of Jesuite or Arminian May not some be true May not some be agreeable to our Writers and yet in a way that is stronger than ours to confirm the Article Fourthly Is there by this Act any Interpretation made or declared of the Articles or not If none to what end the Act If a sense or interpretation be declared what Authority have Lay-men to make it For interpretation of an Article belongs to them only that have power to make it Fifthly It is manifest there is a sense declared by the House of Commons the Act saies it We avow the Article and in that sense and all other that agree not with us in the aforesaid sense we reject these and these go about misinterpretation of a sense Ergo there is a Declaration of a sense yea but it is not a new sense declared by them but they avow the old sense declared by the Church the publick Authentick Acts of the Churcâ— c. yea but if there be no such publick Authentick Acts of the Church then here is a sense of their own declared under the pretexts of it Sixthly It seems against the Kings Declaration 1. That say We shall take the general meaning of the Articles This Act restrains them to consent of Writers 2. That says The Articles shall not be drawn aside any way but that we shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense This Act ties us to consent of Writers which may and perhaps do go against the literal sense for here is no exception so we shall be perplexed and our consent required to things contrary Seventhly All consent in all Ages as far as I have observed to an Article or Canon is to it self as it is laid down in the body of it and if it bear more senses then one it is lawful for any man to chuse what sense his judgment directs him to so that it be a sense secundum Analogiam fidei and that he hold it peaceably without distracting the Church and this till the Church that made the Article determine a sense And the wisdom of the Church hath been in all Ages or in most to require consent to Articles in General as much as may be because that is the way of unity and the Church in high points requiring assent to particulars hath been rent as De Transubstantiatione c. It is reported of Alphonso King of Castile Sirnamed the Wise that he used many times to say never the worse for so saying That if he had stood at God Almighties Elbow when he made the world he would have put him in mind of some things which had been forgotten or otherwise might have been better ordered than they were And give me leave to say with as little wisdom though with no such blasphemy that if I had stood at his Lordships Elbow when he made these Scholia's I would have put him in mind of returning an answer to that Clause of the said Declaration in which it is affirmed That the Articles of Religion were established in Parliament in the thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth But I would fain know of them whether the Parliament they speak of or any other since or before that time did take upon them to confirm Articles of Religion agreed on by the Clergy in their Convocations or that they appointed any Committee for Religion to examine the Orthodoxie of those Articles and make report unto the House All which was done in that Parliament was this and on this occasion Some Ministers of the Church so stifly wedded to their old Mumsimus of the Mass and some as furiously prosecuting their new Sumpsimus of inconformity it was thought fit that between those contending parties the Doctrine of the Church should be kept inviolate And thereupon it was Enacted That every person under the degree of a Bishop which did or should pretend to be a Priest or Minister of Gods holy Word and Sacraments in the Church of England should before Christmass next following in the presence of his Diocesan Bishop testifie his assent and subscribe to the said Articles of the year 1562. Secondly That after such subscribing before the Bishop he should on some Sunday in the Forenoon in the Church or Chappel where he served in time of Divine Service read openly the said Articles on pain of being deprived of all his Ecclesiastical Promotions as if he were then naturally dead Thirdly That if any Ecclesiastical person should maintain any Doctrine contrary to any of the said Articles and being Convented before his Bishop c. and should persist therein it should be just cause to deprive such person of his Ecclesiastical
Foreign Title exercised all manner of Episcopal Jurisdiction in the Church of England And on the other side Archbishop Abbot a great Confident of the Popular Party in the House of Commons is sent for to the Court about Christmas and from out of his Barge received by the Archbishop of York and the Earl of Dorset by them accompanied to the King who giving him his Hand to kiss enjoined him not to fail the Council-Table twice a week And so far all was well beyond all exception but whether it were so in the two next also hath been much disputed Barnaby Potter Provost of Queens Colledge in Oxon. a thorow-pac'd Calvinian but otherwise his ancient Servant is preferr'd to the Bishoprick of Carlisle then vacant by the Translation of White to the See of Mountague's Book named Appello Caesarem must be called in also not in regard of any false Doctrine contained in it but for being the first cause of those Disputes and Differences which have since much troubled the quiet of the Church His Majesty hoping That the occasion being taken away men would no longer trouble themselves with such unnecessary Disputations Whether his Majesty did well in doing no more if the Book contained any false Doctrine in it or in doing so much if it were done only to please the Parliament I take not upon me to determine But certainly it never falleth out well with Christian Princes when they make Religion bend to Policy or think to gain their ends on men by doing such things as they are not plainly guided to by the Light of Conscience And so it hapned to his Majesty at this present time those two last Actions being looked on only as Tricks of King-craft done only out of a design for getting him more love in the hearts of his People than before he had Against the calling in of Mountague's Book it was objected commonly to his disadvantage That it was not done till three years after it came out till it had been questioned in three several Parliaments till all the Copies of it were dispersed and sold and then too That it was called in without any Censure either of the Author or his Doctrines That the Author had been punished with a very good Bishoprick and the Book seemingly discountenanced to no other end but to divert those of contrary perswasion from Writing or Acting any thing against it in the following Parliament And as for Potter what could he have done less in common gratitude than to prefer him to a Bishoprick for so many years Service as Potter in his time had done him both as Prince and King So true is that of the wise Historian When Princes once are in discredit with their Subjects as well their good Actions as their bad are all accounted Grievances For notwithstanding all these preparatory actions the Commons were resolved to begin at the same Point where before they ended The Parliament had been Prorogued as they were hammering a Remonstrance against Tonnage and Poundage which animated Chambers Rouls and some other Mercâ—ants to refuse the payment for which refusal some of their Goods was seised by Order from the Lord Treasurer Weston and some of them committed Prisoners by the Kings Command These matters so possessed their thoughts that a week was passed before they could resume their old care of Religion or think of Petitioning his Majesty for a Publick Fast but at last they fell upon them both To their Petition for a Fast not tendred to his Majesty till the thirtieth of Ianuary he returned this Answer the next day viz. That this Custom of Fasts at every Session was but lately begun That he was not so fully satisfied of the necessity of it at this time That notwithstanding for the avoiding of Questions and Jealousies he was pleased to grant them their Request with this Proviso That it should not hereafter be brought into President but on great occasions And finally That as for the form and times thereof he would advise with his Bishops and then return unto both Houses a particular Answer But so long it was before that Answer came unto them and so perverse were they in crossing with his Majesties Counsels that the Parliament was almost ended before the Fast was kept in London and Westminster and dissolved many days before it was to have been kept in the rest of the Kingdom And for Religion they insisted on it with such importunity that his Majesty could no longer dissemble his taking notice of it as a meer artifice and diversion to stave him off from being gratified in the Grant of Tonnage and Poundage which he so often press'd them to And thereupon he lets them know That he understood the cause of their delay in his business to be Religion of the preservation whereof none of them should have greater care than himself and that either it must be an Argument he wanted Power to preserve it which he thought no body would affirm or at the least That he was very ill counselled if it were in so much danger as they had reported This notwithstanding they proceed in their former way His Majesty had granted several Pardons to Mountague Cosens Manwaâ—ring and Sibthâ—rp before-mentioned These Pardons must be questioned and the men summoned to appear And Information is preferred by Iones against Mountague's Confirmation in the See of Chichester which after many disputes is referred to a Select Committee Complaint is made against Neile Bishop of Winton for for saying to some Divines of his Diocess That they must not Preach against Papists now as they had done formerly Marshall and Moor two Doctors in Divinity but such as had received some displeasures from him are brought in to prove it Upon him also it was charged That the Pardons of Mountague and Cosens were of his procuring Insomuch that Eliot pronounced positively That all the Dangers which they feared were contracted in the person of that Bishop and thereupon desired That a Motion might be made to his Majesty to leave him to the Iustice of that House Many Reports come flowing in to the Committee for Religion of turning Tables into Altars adoring towards or before them and standing up at the Gospels and the Gloria Patri which must be also taken into consideration The Articles of Lambeth are declared to be the Doctrines of this Church and all that did oppose them to be called in question Walker delivered a Petition from the Booksellers and Printers in complaint of the Restraint of Books written against Popery and Arminianism and the contrary allowed of by the only means of the Bishop of London and That divers of them had been Pursevanted for Printing of Orthodox Books and That the Licencing of Books was only to be restrained to the said Bishop and his Chaplains Hereupon followed a Debate amongst them about the Licencing of Books which having taken up some time was referred to the Committee also as the other was By these Embraceries the Committee
County of Kent situate about seven miles from the Sea and neighboured by a little River capable only of small boats and consequently of no great use for the wealth and trading of the place It was made an Archiepiscopal See at the first planting of the Gospel amongst the English Augustine the Monk who first preacht the one being the first Archbishop of the other For though that Dignity was by Pope Gregory the Great designed for London yet Augustine the Monk whom he sent hither on that Errand having received this City in gift from the King resolved to six himself upon it without going further Merlin had prophesied as much if those Prophesies be of any credit signifying that the Metropolitan dignity which was then at London should in the following times be transferred to Canterbury Ethelbert then King of Kent having thus given away the Regal City retires himself unto Reculver where he built his Palace for himself and his Successors in that Kingdom leaving his former Royal Seat to be the Archiepiscopal Palace for the Archbishops of Canterbury The Cathedral having been a Church before in the Britains time was by the said Archbishop Augustine repaired Consecrated and Dedicated to the name of Christ which it still retains though for a long time together it was called St Thomas in honour of Thomas Becket one of the Archbishops hereof who was murthered in it The present Fabrick was begun by Archbishop Lanfranck and William Corboyle and by degrees made perfect by their Successors Take Canterbury as the Seat of the Metropolitan it hath under it twenty one Suffragan Bishops of which seventeen are in England and four in Wales But take it as the Seat of a Diocesan and it containeth only some part of Kent to the number of 257 Parishes the residue being in the Diocess of Rochester together with some few particular Parishes dispersed here and there in several Diocesses it being an ancient priviledge of this See that wheresoever the Archbishops had their Mannors or Advousons the place forthwith became exempt from the Ordinary and was reputed of the Diocess of Canterbury The other Priviledges of this See are that the Archbishop is accounted Primate and Metropolitan of ALL England and is the first Peer of the Realm having precedency of all Dukes not being of the Royal bloud and all the great Officers of the State He hath the Title of Grace afforded him in common speech and writes himself Divina Providentia where other Bishops only use Divina Permissione The Coronation of the King hath anciently belonged unto him It being also formerly resolved that wheresoever the Court was the King and Queen were the proper and Domestical Parishioners of the Archbishop of Canterbury It also did belong unto him in former times to take unto himself the Offerings made at the holy Altar by the King and Queen wheresoever the Court was if he were present at the same and to appoint the Lent Preachers but these time hath altered and the King otherwise disposed of Abroad in General Councils he had place at the Popes Right foot At home this Royal Priviledge That those which held Lands of him were liable for Wardship to him and to compound with him for the same though they held other Lands in chief of our Lord the King And for the more increase of his power and honour it was Enacted 25 Hen. viii and 21. That all Licences and Dispensations not repugnant to the Law of God which heretofore were sued for in the Court of Rome should be hereafter granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Successors As also in the 1 Eliz. and 2. That by the Advice of the Metropolitan or Ecclesiastical Commissioners the Queens Majesty might ordain and publish such Rites and Ceremonies as may be most for the Advancement of Gods glory the Edifying of his Church and the due Reverence of Christs holy Sacraments To this high dignity Laud succeedeth on the death of Abbot nominated unto it by the King on the sixth of August the Election returned and presented to his Majesty from the Dean and Chapter on the twenty fifth of the same and the translation fully perfected on the nineteenth of September then next following on which day he kept a solemn and magnificent Feast at his house in Lambeth his State being set out in the great Chamber of that house and all persons standing bare before it after the accustomed manner his Steward Treasurer and Comptroller attending with their white staves in their several Offices Thus have we brought him to his height and from that height we may take as good a prospect into the Church under his direction as the advantage of the place can present unto us And if we look into the Church as it stood under his direction we shall find the Prelates generally more intent upon the work committed to them more earnest to reduce this Church to the ancient Orders than in former times the Clergy more obedient to the Commands of their Ordinaries joyning together to advance the work of Vniformity recommended to them the Liturgie more punctually executed in all the parts and offices of it the Word more diligently preacht the Sacraments more reverendly administred than in some scores of years before the people more conformable to those Reverend Gestures in the House of God which though prescribed before were but little practised more cost laid out upon the beautifying and adorning of Parochial Churches in furnishing and repairing Parsonage houses than at or in all the times since the Reformation the Clergy grown to such esteem for parts and power that the Gentry thought none of their Daughters to be better disposed of than such as they had lodged in the Arms of a Church-man and the Nobility grown so well affected to the State of the Church that some of them designed their younger Sons to the Order of Priesthood to make them capable of rising in the same Ascendent Next if we look into the Doctrine we shall find her to be no less glorious within than beautified and adorned to the outward eye the Doctrines of it publickly avowed and taught in the literal and Grammatical sense according to the true intent and meaning of the first Reformers the Dictates and Authorities of private men which before had carried all before them subjected to the sense of the Church and the Church hearkening to no other voice than that of their great Shepherd speaking to them in his holy Scriptures all bitternesses of spirit so composed and qualified on every side that the advancement of the great work of Unity and Uniformity between the parties went forwards like the building of Solomons Temple without the noise of Axe or Hammer If you will take her Character from the mouth of a Protestant he will give it thus He that desires to pourtray England saith he in her full structure of external glory let him behold the Church shining in transcendent Empyreal brightness and purity
of Evangelical Truths Her Religious Performances her holy Offices ordered and regulated agreeable to the strict expedient of such Sacred Actions Her Discipline Model sutable to the Apostolick Form The set and suit of her whole Tribe renowned â—or Piety and Learning are all those in so super-eminent a degree that no Church on this side of the Apostolick can or could compare with her in any one All Arts and Sciences highly honoured and consequently their Academies to flourish To which last part of the Character let me add thus much That the Universities never had such a flourishing time for number of Students civility of Conversation and eminence in all parts of Learning as when the influences of his Power and Government did direct their Studies If you will take her Character from the Pen of a Iesuit you shall find him speaking amongst many falshoods these undoubted Truths viz. That the Professors of it they especially of greatest Worth Learning and Authority love Temper and Moderation That the Doctrines are altered in many things as for example the Pope not Antichrist Pictures Free-will Predestination Vniversal Grace Inherent Righteousness the preferring of Charity before Knowledge the Merit or Reward rather of good Works the 39 Articles seeming patient if not ambitious also of some Catholick sense That their Churches begin to look with a new face their Walls to speak a new Language and some of their Divines to teach That the Church hath Authority in determining Controversies of Faith and interpreting the Scriptures That men in talk and writing use willingly the once fearful names of Priests and Altars and are now put in mind That for Exposition of Scripture they are by Canon bound to follow the Fathers So far the Iesuit may be thought to speak nothing but truth but had he tarried there he had been no Iesuit And therefore to preserve the Credit of his Order he must fly out further and tell us this viz. That Protestantism waxeth weary of it self That we are at this time more unresolved where to fasten than in the infancy of our Church That our Doctrine is altered in many things for which our Progenitors forsook the then visible Church of Christ amongst which he reckons Limbus Patrum Prayer for the Dead Iustification not by Faith alone The possibility of keeping Gods Commandments and the accounting of Calvinism to be Heresie at the least if not also Treason Which Points the Iesuit cannot prove to have been positively maintained by any one Divine in the Church of England and yet those foolish men began to phancy such a misconstruction of that Ingenuity and Moderation which they found in some Professors of our Religion whom they affirmed to be of greatest Worth Learning and Authority as to conceive that we were coming towards an Agreement with them even in those Superstitions and Idolatries which made the first Wall of Separation between the Churches Upon which hope as weak and foolish as it was the late Archbishop of Canterbury was no sooner dead but one of their Party came to Laud whom they looked upon as his Successor seriously tendred him the offer of a Cardinals Cap and avowed Ability to perform it to whom he presently returned this Answer That somewhat dwelt within him which would not suffer him to accept the Offer till Rome were otherwise than it was And this being said he went immediately to his Majesty acquainting him both with the Man and with his Message together with the Answer which he made unto it The like he also did when the same Offer was reinforced a fornight after upon which second Refusal the Tempter left him and that not only for that time but for ever after But to proceed To welcom him to his new great Charge he received Letters from his Majesty dated upon the very day of his Confirmation upon this occasion It had been ordered by the ancient Canons of the Church That none should be admitted Deacon or Priest who had not first some certain place where he might use his Function And it was ordered by the Canons of the year 1603. in pursuance of the said old Canons That no person should be admitted into Sacred Orders except he shall at that time exhibit to the Bishop of whom he desireth Imposition of Hands a Presentation of himself to some Ecclesiastical Preferment then void in that Diocess or shall bring unto the said Bishop a true and undoubted Certificate That either he is provided of some Church within the said Diocess where he may attend the Cure of Souls or of some Ministers Place vacant either in the Cathedral Church of that Diocess or of some other Collegiat Church therein also scituate where he may execute his Ministry or that he is a Fellow or in right as a Fellow or to be a Conduct or Chaplain in some Colledge in either of the Universities or except he be a Master of Arts of five years standing that liveth in either of them at his own charge And hereunto was added this Commination That if any Bishop shall admit any person into the Ministry that hath none of these Titles as is aforesaid then he shall keep and maintain him with all things necessary till he do prefer him to some Ecclesiastical Living and on his refusal so to do he shall be suspended by the Archbishop being assisted with another Bishop from giving of Orders by the space of a year Which severe Canon notwithstanding some Bishops of the poorer Sâ—â—s for their private benefit admitted many men promisâ—uously to Holy Orders so far from having any Title that they had no Merit By means whereof the Church was filled with indigent Clerks which either thrust themselves into Gentlemens Houses to teach their Children and sometimes to officiate Divine Service at the Tables end or otherwise to undertake some Stipendary Lecture wheresoever they could find entertainment to the great fomenting of Faction in the State the Danger of Schism in the Church and ruine of both It had been formerly ordered by his Majesties Instructions of the year 1629. That no private Gentleman not qualified by Law should keep any Chaplain in his House Which though it were somewhat strictly inquired into at the first yet not a few of them retained their Chaplains as before For remedy whereof for the time to come it was thought fit to tie the Bishops from giving Orders unto any which were not qualified according to the foresaid Canon which was conceived to be the only probable means of diminishing the number both of such petit Lecturers and such Trencher-Chaplains the English Gentry not being then come to such wild extremities as to believe that any man might exercise the Priests Office in ministring the Sacraments Praying Preaching c. which was not lawfully Ordained by some Bishop or other Now his Majesties Letter to this purpose was as followeth CHARLES REX MOst Reverend Father in God Right Trusty and Right Entirely-beloved Counsellor We greet you well There
of particular Churches and of some Times only And 3. It in Points of Doctrine Whether such Points have been determined oâ— before in a General Council or in Particular Councils universally received and countenanced or are to be defined de novo on emergent Controversies And these Distinctions being thus laid I shall Answer briefly 1. If the things to be reformed be either Corruptions in Manners or neglect of Publick Duties to Almighty God Abuses either in Government or the Parties governing the King may do it of himself by his sole Authority The Clergy are beholden to him if he takes any of them along with him when he goes about it And if the Times should be so bad that either the whole body of the Clergy or any though the greatest part thereof should oppose him in it he may go forwards notwithstanding punishing such as shall gainsay him in so good a Work and compelling others And this I look on as a Power annexed to the Regal Diadem and so inseparably annexed that Kings could be no longer Kings iâ— it were denied them And on the other side if the Reformation be in Points oâ— Doctrine and in such Points of Doctrine as have not been before defined or not defined in form and manner as before laid down the King only with a few of his Bishops and Learned Clergy though never so well studied in the Point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted whose Acts being Ratified by the King bind not alone the rest of the Clergy in whose name they Voted but all the residue of the Subjects of what sort soever who are to acquiesce in their Resolutions But if the thing to be Reformed be a matter practical we are to look into the usage of the Primitive Times And if the Practice prove to have been both ancient and universally received over all the Church though intermitted for a Time and by Time corrupted the King consulting with so many of his Bishops and others of his most able Clergy as he thinks â—it to call unto him and having their Consent and Direction in it may in the case of intermission revive such Practice and in the case of corruption and degeneration restore it to its Primitive and Original Lustre Now that there should be Liturgies for the use of the Church And that those Liturgies should be Celebrated in a Language understood by the People That in those Liturgies there should be some prescribed Forms for Giving the Communion in both Kinds for Baptizing Infants for the reverent Celebration of Marriage performing the 〈◊〉 Office to the Sick and the decent Burial of the Dead as also for set Fasts and appointed Festivals hath been a thing of Primitive and General Practice in the best times of the Church And being such though intermitted and corrupted as before is said the King advising with his Bishops and other Church-men though not in a Synodical way may cause the same to be revised and revived and having fitted them to Edification and encrease of Piety either commend them to the Church by his sole Authority or else impose them on the People under certain Penalties by his Power in Parliament The Kingdom of Heaven said the Reverend Isidore of Sevil doth many times receive increase from these Earthly Kingdoms in nothing more than by regulating and well ordering of Gods Publick Worship Add hereunto what was before alledged for passing the Canons in the same way and then we have the sum of that which was and probably might have been pleaded in defence hereof The prosecution of this Liturgie on the one side and the exaction of those Publick Orders on the other kindled such fires in the breasts of some of the Puritan Faction that presently they brake out into open Flames For first the Scots scattered abroad a virulent and seditioâ—s Libel in the year 1634. wherein the King was not only charged with altering the Government of that Kingdom but traduced for very strong inclinations to the Religion of the Church of Rome The chief Abettor whereof for the Author was not to be found was the Lord Balmerino for which he was Legally convicted and condemned of Treason but pardoned by the Kings great Goodness and by that Pardon kept alive for the mischiefs following And as the English had Scotized in all their Practises by railing threatning and stirring up of Sedition for bringing in the Genevian Discipline in Queen Elizabeths Time so they resolve to follow their Example now Bastwick a Doctor of Physick the second part of Leighton first leads the Dance beginning with a Pestilent Pamphlet called Flagellum Episcoporum Latialium maliciously venomous against the Bishops their Function Actions and Proceedings But this not being likely to do much hurt amongst the People because writ in Latine he seconds it with another which he called his Litany in the English Tongue A Piece so silly and contemptible that nothing but the Sin and Malice which appeared in every line thereof could possibly have preserved it from being ridiculous Prynne follows next and publisheth two Books at once or one immediately on the other one of these called The Quench-Coal in answer unto that called A Coal from the Altar against placing the Communion-Table Altar-wise The other named The Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus against the Apostolical Institution of Diocesan Bishops But that which was entituled to him by the name of a Libel was The News from Ipswich intended chiefly against Wren then Bishop of Norwich who had taken up his dwelling in that Town as before is said but falling as scandalously foul on the Archbishop himself and some of the other Bishops also and such as acted under them in the present Service For there he descants very trimly as he conceived on the Archbishop himself with his Arch-Piety Arch-Charity Arch-Agent for the Devil that Beelzebub himself had been Archbishop and the like to those a most triumphant Arch indeed to adorn his victories With like reproach he falls on the Bishops generally calling them Luciferian Lord Bishops execrable Traitors devouring Wolves with many other odious names not fit to be used by a Christian and more particularly on Wren telling us That in all Queen Maries times no such havock was made in so short a time of the faithful Ministers of God in any part nay in the whole Land than had been made in his Diocess And then he adds with equal Charity and Truth That Corbet Chancellor to this Bishop had threatned one or two godly Ministers with pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read his Majesties Declaration about lawful Sports More of this dish I could have carved but that this may serve sufficiently for a taste of the whole But the great Master-piece of mischief was set out by Burton so often mentioned before who preaching on the fifth of November in his own Parish
the holy Table being appointed to be placed where the Altar stood by the Queens Injunctions Anno 1559. and that position justified by an order of Dr. Davenant Bishop of Sarum of which we have already spoken whom the Libellers themselves were not like to accuse for a man that purposed the ushering in or advancing of Popery The setting of a Raile before it or about it howsoever placed was only for avoiding of Prophanation and for that cause justifiable As for the reading of the Second or Communion Service at the holy Table it was no more than what had formerly been used in many places to his own remembrance first altered in those Churches where the Emissaries of that Faction came to preach and therefore the Innovation to be laid on them Secondly That it is not only fit and proper for that part of the Divine Service to be read at the Communion Table but that it is required so to be by the Rules and Rubricks of the Church It being said in the first Rubrick after the Communion that on the Holy Daies if there be no Communion all shall be read which is appointed at the Communion and in the last Rubrick before the Communion that the Minister standing at the North side of the holy Table shall say the Lords Prayer with that which follows And finally as to that of bowing towards it at their first entrance in the Church or approaches to it it is answered that it was agreeable to the Practice of Moses David Hezekiah recorded in the holy Scriptures and that Venite Adoremus O come let us worship and fall down c. was used constantly in the beginning of the Ancient Liturgies and preserved in the beginning of ours in England and therefore that the people may as well refuse to come as at their coming not to Worship he added that by the Statutes of the noble Order of St. George called the Garter the Knights whereof were bound to do their Reverence versus Altare toward the Altar that it had so continued ever since the time of King Henry the fifth that if there were any Idolatry in it neither Queen Elizabeth who drove out Popery nor King Iames who kept out Popery would have suffered it to remain in Practice and in a word that if it were Gods Worship and not Idolatry he ought to do it as well as they but if it were Idolatry and no Worship of God they ought to do it no more than he But the fourteenth and last charge which most concerned him and the rest of the Bishops to make answer to was the forging of a new Article of Religion brought from Rome to justifie their proceedings and Innovations and foysting it to the beginning of the twentieth Article The Clause pretended to be added is That the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of â—aith because not found say they in the Latine or English Articles of King Edward the sixth or Queen Elizabeth ratified by Parliament adding that if to forge a Will or Writing be censurable in the Star-Chamber though it be but a wrong to a Private man how much more should the forgery of an Article of Religion be censured there which is a wrong to the whole Church And unto this he answered that the Articles made in the time oâ— King Edward the sixth were not now in force and therefore not material whether that Clause be in or out that in the Articles as they passed in Queen Elizabeths time this Clause was to be found in the English Edition of the year 1612. of the year 1605. of the year 1593. and in Latine in the year 1563. being one of the first Printed Copies after the Articles had been agreed on in the Convocation that it was to be found in the same terms in the Records of Convocation Anno 1562. as he proved by a Certificate under the hand of a publick Notary and therefore finally that no such forgery in adding that Clause unto that Article had been committed by the Prelates to serve their own turns by gaining any power to the Church but that the said Clause had been razed out by some of those men or some of that Faction to weaken the just power of the Church and to serve their own These Innovations thus passed over and discharged he signifies unto their Lordships That some other Charges were remaining in matter of Doctrine that they should presently be answered justo volumine to satisfie all well-minded people and that when Burtons Book was answered his Book he said but not his raylings none of the rest should be answered either by him or by his care leaving that Court to find a way for stopping the mouths of such Libellers or else for him they should raile on as long as they listed And thus beginning to draw toward an end he declares himself to be in the same case with St. Cyprian then Bishop of Carthage bitterly railed upon by a pack of Schismaticks and yet conceiving himself bound which he made his own Resolution also not to answer them with the like Levities or Revilings but to write and speak only as becomes a Priest of God that by Gods grace the Reproaches of such men should not make him faint or start aside either from the right way in matter of Practice or à certa Regula from the certain Rule of Faith Which said and craving pardon of their Lordships for his necessary length he thanks them for their just and honourable censure of those men in their unanimous dislike of them and defence of the Church Makes his excuse from passing any censure of them in regard the business had some reflection on himself and so leaves them to Gods mercy and the Kings Justice Thus have I acted Phocion's part in cutting short the long and well-studied Speech of this grave and Eloquent Demosthenes which I have been the more willing to reduce to so brief an Abstract that the Reader may perceive without the least loss of time and labour on what weak grounds the Puritan Faction raised their outcry against Innovations and what poor trifles many of those Innovations were against which they clamoured and cried out But for the Speech in its full length as it gave great satisfaction unto all that heard it so by his Majesties Command it was afterwards Printed for giving the like satisfaction to all those who should please to read it In obedience unto which Command he caused the said Speech to be Printed and Published although he was not ignorant as he declares in his Epistle to the King that many things while they are spoken and pass by the ears but once give great content which when they come to the eyes of men and their open scanning may lie open to some exceptions And so it proved in the event for though the Speech was highly magnified as it came from his mouth yet it had not been long published in Print when it was encountred with
Proceedings of the Court Christian and specially of the High-Commission and in the next place to deny the Authority of the Commission it self as before was noted In order whereunto he began first to state these Questions viz. 1. Whether it be a good Act of Parliament without the Assent of the Lords Spiritual which he he held affirmatively 2. Whether any Beneficed Clerk were capable of Temporal Iurisdiction at the time of making that Law which he held in the negative And 3. Whether a Bishop without calling a Synod have Power as Diocesan to convict an Heretick which he maintained in the negative also The News whereof being brought to Lambeth there was no need of warning the Archbishop to look about him who was not to be told what a strong Faction some of the Scotizing Lawyers had made against the Church in Queen Elizabeths Time carried it on under the Government of King Iames and now began to threaten as much danger to it as in former times He thereupon informs his Majesty both of the Man and his Design and how far he had gone in justifying the Proceedings of the Scottish Covenanters in decrying the Temporal Power of Church-men and the undoubted Right of Bishops to their Place in Parliament His Majesty hereupon gives Order to Finch the new Lord Keeperâ— to interdict all further Reading on those Points or any others of like nature which might administer any further Flame to the present Combustions The Lord Keeper having done his part and the Reader addressing himself to him that by his leave he might proceed in the course of his Exercise it was soon found that nothing could be done therein without leave from the King and no such leave to be obtained but by the Approbation and Conâ—ent of the Lord Archbishop To Lambeth therefore goes the Reader where he found no admittance till the making of his third Address and was then told That he was fallen upon a Subject neither safe nor seasonable which should stick closer to him than he was aware of Bagshaw endeavoured something in his own defence as to the choice of the Argument and somewhat also as to the impossibility of settling to any other Subject in the present Conjuncture desiring his Grace to be a means unto the King that he might proceed in performance of the Task he had undertaken To which the Archbishop stoutly answered That his Majesty was otherwise resolved in it and that perhaps it had been better for the Reader himself to have given over at the first than have incurred his Majesties Royal Indignation by that unseasonable Adventure No better Answer being given him away goes Bagshaw out of Town accompanied with forty or fifty Horse and it was a great Honour to the House that he had no more who seemed to be of the same Faction and Aâ—fections also as their designed Reader was being instructed though too late that they could not have so great a care of their Courts and Profit as the Archbishops had of the Churches power Such was the constancy of his spirit that notwithstanding the Combustions in Scotland the ill prosecuting of the last Summers Action and the uncertainties of what might happen in the next he alwaies steered his course with a steady hand to the port he aimed at though it pleased God to let him suffer shipwrack in the mouth of the Haven The interrupting of this man in the course of his Reading the holding of so strict an hand over the Congregations of the French and Dutch within his Province and these compliances on the other side with the Church of Rome were made occasions of the clamour which was raised against him concerning his design to suppress the Gospel and to bring in Popery and Arminianism or at the least to make a Reconciliation betwixt us and Rome towards which the Doctrine of Arminius was given out for a certain Preamble Which general clamour being raised against him and the rest of the Bishops I find thus flourisht over by one of their Orators in the House of Commons A little search saith he will find them to have been the destruction of Unity under pretence of Uniformity To have brought in Superstition and Scandal under titles of Reverence and Decency To have defiled our Church by adorning our Churches To have slackned the strictness of that Union which was formerly between us and those of our Religion beyond the Seas An action as unpolitick as ungodly Or we shall find them to have resembled the Dog in the Manger to have neither preached themselves nor imployed those that should nor suffered those that would To have brought in Catechising only to thrust out Preaching and cried down Lectures by the name of Factions either because their industry in that duty appeared a reproof to their neglect of it or with intention to have brought in darkness that they might the easier sow their tares while it was night and by that introduction of ignorance introduce the better that Religion which accounts it the Mother of Devotion In which saith he they have abused his Majesty as well as his People for when he had with great wisdom silenced on both parts those opinions which have often tormented the Church and have and always will trouble the Schools They made use of this Declaration to tye up one side and to let the other loose whereas they ought either in discretion to have been equally restrained or in justice to have been equally tolerated And it is observable that the party to which they gave this Licence was that whose Doctrine though it was not contrary to Law was contrary to Custome and for a long while in this Kingdom was no oftner Preached than Recanted c. We find them introducing such Doctrines as admitting them to be true the truth could not recompence the scandal Or such as were so far false as Sir Thomas More saies of the Casuists their business was not to keep men from sinning but to inform them Quam prope ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere So it seemed their work was to try how much of a Papist might be brought in without Popery and to destroy as much of the Gospel without bringing themselves into danger of being destroyed by Law To go yet further some of them have so industriously laboured to deduce themselves from Rome that they have given great suspicion that in gratitude they desire to return thither or at least to meet it half way some have evidently laboured to bring in an English though not a Roman Popery I mean not only the outside and dress of it but equally absolute a blind dependance on the People upon the Clergy and of the Clergy upon themselves and have opposed the Papacy beyond the Seas that they might settle one beyond the water Such being the general charge which was laid against him we will consider in this place what may be said in order to his defence as to some seeming Innovations into the
Worship of God his design to bring in Popery by the back-door of Arminianism and his endeavouring of a Reconciliation betwixt us and Rome And first as touching such Innovations in the Worship of God he makes a general purgation of himself in his Speech made in the Star-Chamber the sum and substance whereof you have seen before Out of which I shall only take this short and pithy Declaration which he makes of himself in relation to this part of his charge viz. I can say it clearly and truly as in the presence of God that I have done nothing as a Prelate to the utmost of what I am conscious but with a single heart and with a sincere intention for the good Government and honour of the Church and the maintenance of the Orthodox truth and Religion of Christ professed established and maintained in the Church of England For my care of this Church the reducing it to Order the upholding of the External Worship of God in it and the settling of the Rules of its first Reformation are the cause and the sole cause whatsoever is pretended of this malicious storm that hath lowred so black upon me and some of my Brethren The like Declaration he also makes in his first Speech to the Lords at the time of his tryal where we find it thus Ever since I came into place saith he I have laboured nothing more than that the External Worship of God so much slighted in divers parts of this Kingdom might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Uniformity as might be For I evidently saw that the publick neglect of Gods Service in the outward face of it and the nasty lying of many places dedicated to that Service had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward Worship of God which while we live in the body needs External helps and all little enough to keep it in any vigour And this I did to the utmost of my knowledge according both to Law and Canon and with the consent and liking of the People nor did any Command issue out from me against the one or the other And finally we shall find the like Declaration made by him on the Scaâ—fold at the time of his death in which sad hour there was no dissembling and I conceive all charitable men will believe so of it before God or man But because it relates also to the next particular we shall there meet with it And for the next particular concerning the designing to bring in â—â—pery it hath been further aggravated by his correspondency with tâ—e Popes Ministers here in England and his indulgence to that Party upon all occasions But of this he cleansed himself sufficiently in the 〈◊〉 Chamiber Speech before remembred in which he publickly avowed First That he knew of no plot or purpose of altering the Religion established Secondly That he had never been far from attempting any thing that may truly be said to tend that way in the least degree And thirdly having offered his Oath for the other two that it the King had a mind to change Religion which he knew he had not his Majesty must seek for other Instruments how basely soever those men had conceived of him The like 〈…〉 gives also in the last hour of his life when he was goâ—â—â— to tender an account of all his Actions before Gods Tribunal â—here is a Clamour that I would have brought in Popery but I was 〈◊〉 and baptized saith he in the bosome of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matters of Religion and therefore I 〈◊〉 it may be remembred I have alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to die And then he adds with reference to the point before What Clamours and slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the External Service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have abundantly 〈◊〉 His Conference with Fisher the Iesuite in the year 1622. and 〈…〉 of that Conference Anno 1637. with Derings attestation 〈…〉 before we had do most abundantly evince this truth at he approved not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And as 〈◊〉 approveâ— not of their Doctrines so he as much disliked their 〈◊〉 for gaining Proselytes or multiplying their followers in all 〈…〉 the Kingdom concerning which he tells his Majesty That 〈…〉 never had advised a persecution of the Papists in any 〈◊〉 yet God forbid saith he that your Majesty should let born Laws and Discipline sleep for fear of a Persecution and in the mean time let Mr. Fisher and his Fellows Angle in all parts of your Dominions for your Subjects If in your Grace and Goodness you will spare their persons yet I humbly beseech you to see to it that they be not suffered to lay either their Weels or bait their Hâ—oks or cast their Nets in every stream least the Temptation grow both too general and too strong So he in the Epistle Dedicatory to his Large Relation of the Conference between him and Fisher published in the end of the year forgoing Assuredly it must needs seem extremely ridiculous to others and contradictory to it self to confute the chief Doctrines of the Papists and oppose their practicings if he â—ad had any such design to bring in Popery And being thus averse from them in point of Doctrine he declined all correspondence and acquaintance with them whereby he might come under the suspicion of some secret Practice I hold it probable enough that the better to oblige the Queen unto him of whose Prevalency in the Kings affections he could not be ignorant he might consent to Con's coming hither over from the Pope to be assistant to her in such affairs as the nature of her Religion might occasion with the Sea of Rome But he kept himself at such a distance that neither Con nor Panzani before him who acted for a time in the same capacity could fasten any acquaintance on him The Pamphlet called The Popes Nuncio Printed in the year 1643. hath told us That Panzani at his being here did desire a Conference with the Archbishop of Canterbury but was put of and procrastinated therein from day to day That at the last he departed the Kingdom without any Speech with him The like we find in the discovery of Andreas ab Habernfield who tells us of this Con That finding the Kings Judgment to depend much on the Archbishop of Canterbury his faithful Servant he resolved to move every stone and bend all his strength to gain him to his side being confident he had prepared the means For he had a command to make offer of a Cardinals Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him
amongst the People yet is but in one of our Authors neither who hath no other Author for it then a nameless Doctor And in the way towards so happy an agreement though they all stand accused for it by the English Pope pag. 15. Sparrow may be excused for placing it with Auricular Confession and Wâ—llâ— for for Penance Heylyn for Adoration toward the Altar and Mountague for such a qualified praying to Saints as his books maintain against the Papists If you would know how far they had proceeded towards this happy Reconciliation the Popes Nuncio will assure us thus That the Vniversities Bishops and Divines of this Realm did dayly embrace Catholick Opinions though they profess'd not so much with Pen or Mouth for fear of the Puritans For example they hold That the Church of Rome is a true Church That the Pope is Superiour to all Bishops That to him it appertains to call General Councils That it is lawful to pray for the Soul of the Departed That Altars ought to be erected of Stone In sum That they believe all that is taught by the Church but not by the Court of Rome Another of their Authors tells us as was elsewhere noted That those amongst us of greatest Worth Learning and Authority began to love Temper and Moderation That their Doctrines began to be altered in many things for which their Progenitors forsook the Visible Church of Christ as for example The Pope not Antichrist Prayers for the Dead Limbus Patrum Pictures That the Church hath Authority in determining Controversies of Faith and to interpret Scriptures about Free will Predestination Universal Grace That all our Works are not Sins Merit of Good Works Inherent Iustice Faith alone doth justifie Charity to be preferred before Knowledge The Authority of Traditions Commandments possible to be kept That in Exposition of the Scripture they are by Canon bound to follow the Fathers And that the once fearful Names of Priests and Altars are used willingly in their Talk and Writings In which Compliances so far forth as they speak the truth for in some Points through the ignorance of the one and the malice of the other they are much mistaken there is scarce any thing which may not very well consist with the established though for a time discontinued Doctrine of the Church of England the Articles whereof as the same Iesuit hath observed seem patient or ambitious rather of some sense wherein they may seem Catholick And such a sense is put upon them by him that calls himself Franciscus a Sacta Clara as before was said And if upon such Compliances as those before on the part of the English the Conditions offered by the Pope might have been confirmed Who seeth not that the greatest Benefit of the Reconciliation would have redounded to this Church to the King and People His Majesties Security provided for by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance so far as it concerned his Temporal Power The Bishops of England to be independent of the Popes of Rome The Clergy to be permitted the use of Marriage The People to receive the Communion in both KINDS and all Divine Offices officiated in the English Tongue No Innovation made in Doctrine but only in the qualifying of some Expressions and discharging some Out-landish Glosses as were put upon them And seeing this What man could be so void of Charity so uncompassionate of the Miseries and Distractions of Christendom as not to wish from the very bottom of his Soul That the Reconciliation had proceeded upon so good Terms as not to magnifie the men to succeeding Ages who were the Instruments and Authors of so great a Blessing But then admitting as we may That no such Reconciliation was upon the Anvil and that our two Discoursers have proceeded only upon Suppositions yet Canterbury had good ground for what he did were it no other than the settling of the Church of England upon the first Principles and Positions of her Reformation But he had further aims than so He had some thoughts and I have reason to believe it by Conferences first and if that failed by the ordinary course of Ecclesiastical Censures of gaining the Papists to the Church and therefore it concerned him in point of Prudence to smooth the way by removing all such Blocks and Obstacles which had been laid before them by the Puritan Faction He knew that from their Infancy they had been trained up in a Regular Order of Devotion and that they loved that Religion best which came accompanied with Decency and External Splendour That they objected nothing more against us than the Novelty of our Doctrine the Heterodoxies maintained in Publick by some of our Preachers the slovenly keeping of our Churches the Irreverence of the People in them the rude and careless slubbering over of our Common Prayers And what Encouragements had they for resorting to the Congregation when they should hear the Pope defamed whom they behâ—ld with Reverence as their Common Father their Ceremonies to be counted Antichristian their Mass â—â—â—latrous their whole Religion worse than that of the Turks and Moors conâ—ormity to whom in Rites and Ceremonies was held to be more tolerable by the Puritan Preachers than to those of Rome These â—ubs were first to be removed before they could have any thoughts of uniting to us And for the removing of those Rubs he â—â—ll up on the courses before-mentioned which being Renovations only of some ancient Usages were branded by the odious name of Innovations by some of those who out of cunning and design had long disused them Some zealous Protestants beheld his Actings with no small fear as byaâ—sing too strongly toward Rome that the Puritans exclaimed against him for a Papist and the Papists cried him up for theirs and gave themselves some flattering hopes of our coming towards them But the most knowing and understanding men amongst them found plainly That nothing could tend more to their destruction than the introducing of some Ceremonies which by late negligence and Practice had been discontinued For I have heard from a Person of known Nobility That at his being at Rome with a Father of the English Colledge one of the Novices came in and told him with a great deal of joy That the English were upon returning to the Church of Rome That they began to set up Altars to Officiate in their Copes to Adorn their Churches and to paint the Pictures of the Saints in the Church Windows To which the old Father made Reply with some indignation That he talked like an ignorant Novice That these Proceedings rather tended to the Ruine than Advancement of the Catholick Cause That by this means the Church of England coming nearer to the ancient Usages the Catholicks there would sooner be drawn off from them than any more of that Nation would fall off to Rome In reference to Doctrinal Points Heterodoxies and new Opinions and such extravagant Expressions both from Press and Pulpit he took as much
care as in the other And to that end he was not pleased that the Pope should be any longer stigmatized by the name of Antichrist and gave a strict Charge unto his Chaplains That all exasperating Passages which edifie nothing should be expunged out of such Books as by them were to be Licenced to the Press and that no Doctrines of that Church should be writ against but such as seemed to be inconsistent with the establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England Upon which ground it was that Baker Chaplain to the Bishop of London refused to Licence the Reprinting of a Book about the Gunpowder-Treason saying to him that brought the Book That we were not so angry with the Papists now as we were about twenty years since and that there was no need of any such Books to exasperate them there being now an endeavour to win them to us by fairness and mildness And on the same ground Bray Chaplain to the Archbishop refused the Licencing of another called The Advice of a Son unless he might expunge some unpleasing Expressions affirming That those Passages would offend the Papists whom we were now in a fair way of winning and therefore must not use any harsh Phrases against them The Chaplains not to be condemned for their honest care and much less their Lords though I find it very heavily charged as a Crime in all In the English Litany set out by King Henry viii and continued in both Liturgies of King Edward vi there was this Clause against the Pope viz. From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities Good Lord c. Which being considered as a means to affright those of the Romish Party from coming diligently to our Churches was prudently expunged by those who had the Revising of the Liturgie in the first year of the Queen In imitation of whose Piety and Christian Care it was thought fit by the Archbishop to change some Phrases which were found in the Books of Prayer appointed â—or the Fifth of November The first was this Root out the Babylonish and Antichristian Seâ—t which say of Jerusalem Down with it c. Which he changed only unto this Root out the Babylonish or Antichristian Sect of them which say c. The second was Cut off those Workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction which he changed no otherwise than thus Cut off those Workers of Iniquity who turn Religion into Rebellion c. The Alterations were but small but the clamour great which was raised about it The Puritans complaining That the Prayers so altered were intended to reflect on 〈◊〉 seemed to be conscious to themselves of turning Religion into Rebellion and saying of Jerusalem like the old Babylonish Sect Down with it down with it to the ground But he had better reason for it than they had against it For if the first Reformers were so careful of giving no offence to the Romish Party as to expunge a Passage out of the Publick Liturgie when the Queen was a Protestant much greater reason had the Archbishop to correct those Passages in a formal Prayer not confirmed by Law when the Queen was one of that Religion Nothing in this or any of the rest before which tends to the bringing in of Popery the prejudice of the true Protestant Religion or the suppressing of the Gospel Had his Designs tended to the Advancing of Popery he neither would have took such pains to confute their Doctrines nor they have entertained such secret practices to destroy his Person of which more hereafter Had he directed his endeavours to suppress the Protestants he would not have given so much countenance to Dury a Scot who entertained him with some hopes of working an Accord betwixt the Lutheran and Calvinian Churches In which Service as he wasted a great deal of time to little purpose so he received as much Encouragement from Canterbury as he had reason to expect Welcome at all times to his Table and speaking honourably of him upon all occasions till the Times were changed when either finding the impossibility of his Undertaking or wanting a Supply of that Oyl which maintained his Lamp he proved as true a Scot as the rest of that Nation laying the blame of his miscarriage in it on the want of Encouragement and speaking disgracefully of the man which had given him most Had he intended any prejudice to the Reformed Religion Reformed according to the Doctrine of Calvin and the Genevian Forms both of Worship and Government he would not have so cordially advanced the General Collection for the Palatine Churches or provided so heartily for the Rochellers and their Religion touching which last we find this Clause in a Prayer of his for the Duke of Buckingham when he went Commander of his Majesties Forces for the Isle of Rhe viz. Bless my dear Lord the Duke that is gone Admiral with them that Wisdom may attend all his Counsels and Courage and Success all his Enterprises That by his and their means thou wilt be pleased to bring Safety to this Kingdom Strength and Comfort to Religion Victory and Reputation to our Country Had he projected any such thing as the suppressing of the Gospel he would not have shewed himself so industrious in preventing Socinianism from poysoning those of riper years in turning afternoon Sermons into Catechising for the instruction of Children in prohibiting all Assemblies of Anabaptists Familists and other Sectaries which oppose the Common Principles of the Christian Faith For that his silencing of the Arminian Controversies should be a means to suppress the Gospel or his favouring of those Opinions designed for a back-door to bring in Popery no wise man can think The Points in Controversie between the Calvinists and Arminians in the Reformed Churches of Calvin's Plat-form are agitated no less fiercely by the Dominicans on the one side the Iesuits and Franciscans on the other side in the Church of Rome the Calvinists holding with the Dominicans as the Arminians do with the Iesuit and Franciscan Friars And therefore why any such compliance with the Dominicans the principal Sticklers and Promoters in the Inquisition should not be looked on as a Back-door to bring in Popery as well as a Compliance in the same Points with the other two Orders is beyond my reach With which I shut up my Discourse touching the Counsels and Designs which were then on foot and conclude this year The next begins with a Parliament and Convocation the one Assembled on the thirteenth the other on the fourteenth of April In Calling Parliaments the King directs his Writs or Letters severally to the Peers and Prelates requiring them to attend in Parliament to be holden by the Advice of his Privy Council at a certain Time and Place appointed and there to give their Counsel in some great and weighty Affairs touching himself the safety of the Realm and the defence of the Church of England A Clause being
and unprinted Scribbles and glad they were to find such an excellent Advantage as the discovering of an c. in the Body of it did unhappily give them This voiced abroad to be the greatest Mystery of Iniquity which these last Ages had produced containing in it so much of the Depths of Satan that as no man could see the bottom of the Iniquity so neither they that made the Oath nor they that were to take it undeâ—stood the Mystery But unto this it hath been answered as 〈◊〉 the fact That in all the Canons which were made before this bâ—ing five in number there was a particular enumeration of all the persons vested with any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that is to say Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons Deans and Chapters and other persons having peculiar or exempt Jurisdiction which having been repeated distinctly or particularly in such of the Canons as were first made was in the first drawing of their Oath for avoiding of a Tautologie so often iterated cut off with this c. with an intention nevertheless to make the Enumeration perfect and consequently to expunge this unlucky c. before it came to be Engrossed But the King being weary of the Charge and Clamour which the keeping of a Guard on the Convocation did expose him to did hasten them to a Conclusion by so many Messages brought by Vane and others that in the haste this unlucky c. was forgotten and so committed to the Press accordingly It hath been secondly answered as in point of Reason That the c. as it stands in that part of the Oath is so restrained and limited by the following words viz. as it stands now established that there can be no danger of any Mystery of Iniquity in it So that in the Construction of this Text the c. as it now remains is a meer impertinency For being left in it signifieth nothing in regard of the Restriction following and being left out the sense is currant and compleat without it Which all those witty Gentlemen who so often spoke and others of less wit and quality which so frequently writ against this Oath could not chuse but see but that they were not willing to see any thing which might make against them The Paramount Objection being thus refell'd the rest which have been made against it will be easily satisfied It hath been charged by some That the exacting of an Oath not to consent to the Alteration of the Government of the Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons c. is an affront to the fundamental Rules of Civil Politie To which it hath been answered That it is indeed an affront to Government not to submit or yield Obedience unto Civil Sanctions when made and legally established But it is no affront not to give consent to any such Establishments while they are in Treaty for then the liberty of assenting or dissenting of Yea or Nay would be taken away from every Member in the Houses of Parliament and every Man must give consent to every Bill which is offered to him But besides this there were but few of the Convocation whose consent was likely to be asked when any change of Church-Government should be set on foot so that their dissenting or assenting was not much material but only so far as by their readiness of consenting to such Innovations in the Publick Government they might encourage others to proceed against it Here then is no affront to Government much less to the Fundamentals of it the Oath not binding any man not to yield Obedience but not to give consent to such Alteration As for the last Objection That he who takes the Oath declares therein That he takes it willingly being constrained so to do under grievous Penalties This as it comes last is the least considerable for if this were a Crime in the Convocation it was such a Crime as the High Court of Parliament hath been guilty of in drawing up the Oath of Allegiance in the third year of King Iames in which the Party is to swear That he makes that Recognition not only heartily and truly but also willingly and yet the taking of that Oath is imposed on all the Subjects under several Penalties if any of them shall refuse it And yet these Quarrels at the Oath the Unparliamentary Levying of the said Benevolence and the pretended Illegality of their very Sitting after the Parliament expired were but the out-sides of the business but only colours and disguises to conceal the chief cause of their displeasure from the publick view Somewhat there was which galled them more than all these together that is to say the Propositions for asserting the Regal Power making it absolute and independent with reference both to Pope and People to the great discontent and trouble of the Popular Party since better known by the name of Commonwealths-men Which since the English were not confident enough to speak out at first we must take their meaning from the Scots who in the Articles exhibited against our Archbishop by their Commissioners have expresly charged him with this Crime viz. That he made Canons and Constitutions against them their just and necessary defence Ordaining under all highest Pain That hereafter the Clergy should Preach four times in the year such Doctrine as was contrary not only to their Proceedings but to the Doctrine and Proceedings of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks as tending to the utter slavery and ruining of all Estates and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This the true cause of those high Displeasures conceived by some prevailing Members of the House of Commons and openly declared by their Words and Actions branding those innocent Canons for a tendency to Faction and Sedition which they most laboured to suppress condemning all that Voted to them in great sums of Money and afterwards destroying them one by one as they came in their way Compared with this neither the Benevolence nor the Oath nor any thing else before objected was esteemed considerable though all were joyned together to amuze the People and make them fearful of some Plot not only to subvert Religion but their Civil Rights But the best is that howsoever some few men for their private ends reproached these Canons as before his Sacred Majesty the Lords of his most Honourable Privy-Council the Reverend Judges and the Great Lawyers of the Council-Learned conceived otherwise of them in the hearing of all which they were publickly read by the Archbishops procurement before they were tendred to the Clergy to be subscribed and by all which they were approved not without thanks to the Archbishop from the King himself for his pains therein And certainly it had been strange that they should pass the Approbation of the Judges and Learned Lawyers had they contained any thing against the Fundamental Laws of the Land the Property of the Subject and the Rights of Parliaments or been approved by the Lords
come he was conveyed in Maxwell's Coach without any disturbance till he came to the end of Cheapside from whence he was followed by a railing Rabble of rude and uncivil People to the very Gates of the Tower Where having taken up his Lodging and settled his small Family in convenient Rooms he diligently resorted to the Publick Chappel of that place at all times of Worship being present at the Prayers and Sermons and some 〈…〉 â—earing himselâ— uncivilly reviled and pointed at as it were by 〈…〉 Preachers sent thither of purpose to disgrace and vex 〈◊〉 All which Indignities he endured with such Christian meekâ—â—ss as rendred him one of the great Examples both of Patience and 〈◊〉 these latter Times The principal things contained in the Charge of the Scots Commissioners were these that follow viz. That he had press'd upon that 〈◊〉 many Innovations in Religion contained in the Liturgie and 〈◊〉 of Canons contrary to the Liberties and Laws thereof That he had written many Letters to Ballentine Bishop of Dumblane and Dean of the Kings Chappel in Scotland in which he required him and the 〈◊〉 of the Bishops to be present at the Divine Service in their Whites 〈◊〉 blamed the said Bishop for his negligence and slackness in it and â—â—xing him for Preaching Orthodox Doctrine against Arminianism that he had caused the said Bishop to be reprehended for commanding a Solemn Fast to be kept in his Diocess on the Lords day as if they had offended in it against Christianity it self That he gave order for the â—aking down of Stone Walls and Galleries in the Churches of Edenborougâ— to no other end but for the setting up of Altars and Adoration 〈◊〉 the East That for their Supplicating against these Novations they were encountred by him with terrible Proclamations from his Maâ—â—â—â— declared Rebels in all the Parish-Churches of England and a 〈…〉 against them by his Arts and Practices That after the Pa 〈◊〉 made at Perwick he frequently spake against it as dishonou 〈◊〉 and unfit to be kept their Covenant by him called ungodly and 〈…〉 Oaths imposed upon their Countrymen to abjure the same That 〈…〉 nâ—t in the presence of the King and their Commissioners to 〈…〉 the General Assembly held at Glasco and put his Hand un 〈…〉 for Imprisoning some of those Commissioners sent from the Parliament of Scotland for the Peace of both Nations That when the late Parliament could not be moved to assist in the War against them he had caused the same to be dissolved and continued the Con 〈◊〉 to make Canons against them and their Doctrines to be punished four times in every year That he had caused six Subsidies to 〈…〉 on the Clergy for maintaining the War and Prayer to be made 〈◊〉 all Parish-Churches That shame might cover their faces as Enemies to God and the King And finally That he was so industrious in advancing Popery in all the three Kingdoms that the Pope himself could not have been more Popish had he been in his place Such was the Charge exhibited by the Scots Commissioners in which was nothing criminal enough to deserve Imprisonment much less to threaten him with Death And as for that brought up from the House of Commons it consisted of fourteen General Articles as before was said ushered in with a short Preamble made by Pym and shut up with a larger Aggravation of the Offences comprehended in the several Articles the substance of which Articles was to this effect 1. That he had Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Realm to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government and to perswade his Majesty That he might Lawfully raise Money of the Subject without their common Consent in Parliament 2. That to this end he had caused divers Sermons to be Preached and Books to be Printed against the Authority of Parliaments and for asserting an absolute and unlimited Power over the Persons and Goods of the Subjects to be not only in the King but also in himself and the rest of the Bishops and had been a great Promoter of such by whom the said Books and Sermons had been made and published 3. That by several Messages Letters Threatnings c. he had interrupted and perverted the Course of Iustice in Westminster-Hall whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects had been stopp'd in their just Suits and thereby made subject to his will 4. That he had traiterously and corruptly sold Iustice to such as had Causes depending before him and taken unlawful Gifts and Bribes of his Majesties Subjects and had advised and procured his Majesty to sell Places of Iudicature and other Offices 5. That he had caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published without lawful Authority in which were many things contained contrary to the Kings Prerogative the Fundamental Laws c. and had caused many of the same to surreptitiously passed and afterwards by fear and compulsion to be subscribed by the Prelates and Clerks there assembled notwithstanding they had never been Voted and Passed in the Convocation 6. That he hath assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Eccesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesties Subjects in this Realm and other places to the disherison of the Crown dishonour of his Majesty and derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters 7. That he had endeavoured to alter and subvert Gods true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end had maintained many Popish Doctrines enjoyned many Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies and cruelly vexed and persecuted such as refused to conform unto them 8. That 〈◊〉 order thereunto he had intruded into the Rights of many of his Majesties Officers and Subjects in procuring to himself the Nomination of divers Persons to Ecclesiastical Benefices and had taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King promoting and commending none but such as were Popishly affected or otherwise unsound in Doctrine or corrupt in Manners 9. That to the same intent he had chosen such men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion and had committed unto them or some of them the Licencing of Books to be Printed whereby many false and Superstitious Books had been Published to the great scandal of Religion and the seducing of many of his Majesties Subjects 10. That he had endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome confederating to that end with divers Popish Priests and Iesuits holding Intelligence with the Pope and permitting a Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be established in this Kingdom 11. That in his own Person and by others under his Command he had caused divers Godly and Orthodox Ministers of Gods Word to be Silenced Suspended and otherwise grieved without any lawful or just cause hindred the Proaching of Gods Word cherished Prophaneness and Ignorance amongst the People and compelled
Lords as double in number to the Bishops But whatsoever his fears were they were soon removed that Meeting being scattered about the middle of May upon the bringing in of a Bill against Deans and Chapters which so divided the Convenors both in their persons and affections that they never after met together Concerning which we are to know that not only most of the Lords of the Lower House and many Lower-House Lords in the Upper House resolving to pull up Episcopacy by the very roots thought it convenient to begin with lopping the Branches as laying no pretence to Divine Institution The voting of which Bill exceedingly amazed all those of the Prelatical Clergy as knowing at what Root it struck though none seemed presently concerned in it but such as had some benefit or subsistance in those foundations To still the great noise which was raised about it the Commons seemed not unwilling that some of the Cathedral Clergy should advocate for the continuance of those Capitular Bodies and others of the contrary Party to present their Reasons for their Dissolution The time appointed being come Hacket Archdeacon of Bedford and one of the Prebends of St. Pauls pleaded both learnedly and stoutly in behalf of those Churches and Burges of Watford who not long before brought down his Myrmidons to cry for Justice against Strafford to the Parliament doors was all for down with them down with them to the very ground But though they differed in their Doctrine yet they agreed well enough in their applications Burges declaring it unlawful as well as Hacket that the Revenues of those Churches should otherwise be imployed than to pious uses This seemed to put the business to a stand for the present time but Canterbury knowing with what case it might be resumed advised the drawing of a Petition to both Houses of Parliament in the name of the University of Oxon. which had a great stock going in the Ship of the Church not only for the preservation of the Episcopal Government but of those Foundations as being both the Encouragements and Rewards of Learning In which Petâ—tion having spoken in few words of the Antiquity and Succession of Bishops from the Apostles themselves they insist more at large upon such Suggestions as might best justifie and endear the cause of Cathedral Churches which being the most material of all those motives which were laid before them to that purpose we shall â—â—re subjoyn And we become further suiters saith that Vniversity for the continuance of the Pious Foundations of Cathedral Churches with their Lands and Revenues As Dedicate to the Service and Honour of God soon after the Plantation of Christianity in the English Nation As thought fit and usefully to be preserved for that end when the Nursâ—â—â—â— of Superstition were demolished and so continued in the last and 〈◊〉 times since the Blessed Reformation under King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth and King James Princes Renowned through the world for their Piety and Wisdom As approved and confirmed by the Law◠〈◊〉 this Land Ancient and Modern As the Principal and outwâ—rd 〈◊〉 and encouragements of all Students especially in Diviâ—â—â—â— and the fâ—ttest Reward of some deep and Eminent Scholars As 〈…〉 in all Ages many Godly and Learned men 〈…〉 strongly asserted the truth of the Religion we Profess 〈◊〉 the many fierce oppositions of our Adversaries of Rome As 〈…〉 a competent Portion in an Ingenious way to many younger brothers of good Parentage who devote themselves to the Ministery of the Gospel As the only means of subsistance to a multitude of Officers and other Ministers who with their families depend upon them and are wholly maintained by them As the main Authors or upholders of 〈…〉 Schools Hospitals High-ways Bridges and other Pious works 〈◊〉 special causes of much Profit and advantages to those Cities where 〈◊〉 are situate Not only by Relieving the Poor and keeping conve 〈◊〉 Hâ—â—pitality but by occasioning a frequent Resort of strangers 〈◊〉 other parts to the great benefit of all trades-men and inhabi 〈◊〉 in those places As the goodly Monuments of our Predecessors 〈◊〉 and present Honour of this Kingdom in the Eye of Foreign Na 〈◊〉 As the Chief support of many thousand families of the Layety who enjoy fair Estates under them in a free way As yielding a con 〈◊〉 and ample Revenue to the Crown And as by which many of the 〈…〉 Proâ—essors in our Vniversities are maintained The subver 〈…〉 whereof must as we conceive not only be attended 〈…〉 consequences as will redound to the Scandal of many well 〈…〉 our Religion but open the mouths of our Adversaries and if 〈…〉 against us and as likely in time to draw after it harder condi 〈…〉 in a considerable part of the Layety and Vniversal cheapness 〈…〉 upon the Clergy a lamentable drooping and defection of 〈…〉 knowledge in the Vniversities which is easie to firesee but will be hard to Remedy The like petition came from Cambridge as much concerned in this â—â—mmon cause as their sister of Oxon. But neither of them could 〈◊〉 so far as take off the edge of the ax which had been thus 〈◊〉 at the Root of the tree though it did blunt it at the present 〈◊〉 they which had the managing of the Design finding that the 〈◊〉 Churches were two strongly Cemented to be demolished at an Instant considered seasonably for themselves that the furthest way about did many times prove the nearest way to the journeys end A Bill was therefore passed in the House of Commons and sent up to the Lords by which it was to be Enacted if their Vote had carried it First that the Bishops should have no Voices in Parliament Secondly that they should not be Commissioners for the Peace or Judges in any Temporal Courts And that they should not fit in the Star-chamber nor be Privy Counsellors Which Bill being Voted part by part The two last parts were passed by a general consent not above one or two dissenting But the first branch was carried in the Negative by such an Unison consent in the Lords then present that if the Bishops had not Voted in defence of themselves the Temporal Lords alone who appeared for them had carried it by sixteen Voices The point being still upon debate those Lords which had shewed themselves against the Bishops resolved to put it to the Fortune of another day protesting that the Former manner of Voting the said Bill by Branches was both Vnparliamentary and Illegal and therefore that the Bill was either wholly to be passed or ejected wholly which being condescended to the whole Bill was utterly cast out of the House by so many voices that the Bishops might have spared their own till another time And though according to the Rules of all former Parliaments that a Bill which had been once cast out of the House should never be prest again the same Session yet this Bill found a way to it within few moneths after and almost
provide them Necessaries before they would budge toward the Tweed And yet all these Temptations were not of such prevalency with the Principal Covenanters as an Assurance which was given them of calling Canterbury their supposed old Enemy to a present Tryal Who having been imprisoned upon their complaint almost three years since seems to have been preserved all this while for no other purpose than for a bait to hook them in for some new Imployments The Walls of some Confederacies like that of Catiline are never thought to be sufficiently well built but when they are cemented with bloud All matters thus resolved on the Covenant agreed on betwixt them and the Scots was solemnly taken by both Houses in St. Margarets Church and generally imposed upon all such as were obnoxious to their power and lived under the command of their Forts and Garrisons the taking whereof conduced as visibly to the destruction of this most reverend and renowned Prelate as to the present subversion of the Government and Liturgy here by Law established In the first branch it was to be covenanted and agreed between the Nations that is to say between the Puritan or Presbyterian Factions in either Kingdom That all endeavours should be used for the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland both in Doctrine Worship Liturgy and Government and for bringing the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechising And in the second That in like manner they endeavour without any respect of Persons the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops and Bishops their Chancellors or Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on the Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and what soever should be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness But all this might have been pursued to the end of the Chace without danger to the life of any whether they endeavoured it or not whether their lives might be an hindrance or their deaths give a spur to put on the work And therefore in the fourth place it was also Covenanted That they should with all diligence and faithfulness discover all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from one another or making any Faction or Parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient Which Article seems to have been made to no other purpose but to bring the Archbishop to the Block as the like clause was thrust into the Protestation of the third of May Anno 1641. to make sure work with the Earl of Strafford whom they had then designed to the said sad end And this may be the rather thought because the Covenant was contrived and framed in Scotland where none but his sworn Enemies could be supposed to have had any hand in it and being by them so contrived was swallowed without much enewing by the Houses of Parliament who were not then in a con 〈◊〉 to deny them any thing But by whomsoever it was framed his Majesty saw well enough that it aimed at the subversion of the present Government and the diminution of his Power if not the destruction of his Person the preservation and safety whereof was to be endeavoured no further than in defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Which how great or little it might be or what was meant by true Religion and the publick Liberties was left wholly unto their construction who would be sure not to interpret any thing to his best advantage His Majesty therefore looking on it as a dangerous Combination against himself the established Religion and the Laws of this Kingdom for the bringing in of Foreign Forces to subvert them all interdicted all his Subjects from imposing or taking the same as they would answer the contrary at their utmost Perils Which Proclamation bearing date on the ninth of October came out too late to hinder the taking and enjoyning of this Covenant where the restraint thereof might have been most necessary For the Commons were so quick at their work that on Munday September 25. it had been solemnly taken by all the Members of that House and the Assembly of Divines at St. Margarets in Westminster in the same Church within two daies after it was administred with no less solemnity to divers Lords Knights Gentlemen Colonels Officers Souldiers and others residing in and about the City of London a Sermon being preached by Coleman though otherwise a principal Erastian in point of Government to justifie the Piety and Legality of it and finally enjoyned to be taken on the Sunday following in all Churches and Chappels of London within the Lines of Communication by all and every the Inhabitants within the same as afterward by all the Kingdom in convenient time Prosecuted in all places with such cursed rigour that all such who refused to subscribe the same and to lift up their hands to God in testimony that they called him to witness to it were turned both out of house and home as they use to say not suffered to compound for their Goods or Lands till they had submitted thereunto A terrible and wofull time in which men were not suffered to enjoy their Estates without betraying themselves to the Kings displeasure and making shipwrack of a good conscience in the sight of God Upon which ground considering it consisted of six Principal branches it was compared by some to the six knotted whip or the Statute of the six Articles in the time of King Henry viii this Covenant drawing in the Scots and thereby giving an occasion of shedding infinitely much more bloud than those Articles did Certain I am that if all such as died in the War upon that account may not go for Martyrs all such as irrecoverably lost their Estates and Livings for refusal of it may be called Confessors Others with no unhappy curiosity observing the number of the words which make up this Covenant abstracted from the Preface and Conclusion of it found them amounting in the total to 666. neither more nor less which being the number of the Beast in the Revelation pursued with such an open persecution and prosecuted to the loss of so many lives the undoing of so many Families and the subverting of the Government both of Church and State may very justly intitle it to so much of Antichrist as others have endeavoured to confer on the Popes of Rome For if the Pope shewed any thing of the Spirit of Antichrist by bringing Cranmer the first Protestant
other Bishops assisting at it And it is possible enough That if he had not made such haste as he did he might have had a worse rub in it than he had before Scarce was the Consecration finished when news came to Croyden of the unfortunate death of the Duke of Buckingham murthered the day before at Portsmouth by one Iohn Felton a Lieutenant who thought himself neglected in the course of his Service The Duke had wholly set his heart on the Relief of Rochel then block'd up by the French both by Sea and Land in hope thereby to redeem the Honour he had lost at the Isle of Rhe and to ingratiate himself with the People of England On the twelfth of August he set forwards from Portsmouth neer which the Navy lay at Anchor and where he had appointed the Rendezvouz for his Land-Forces to assemble and meet together The interval of time betwixt that and his death he spent in putting all things into Readiness that he was almost at the point of going on Board when Feliâ—n cut him off in the middest of his Glories The wretch in such a general confusion might have saved himself if either curiosity in attending the issue or some consternation in his countenance upon the horror of the Fact had not betrayed him to a present discovery Taken upon suspicion and questioned about the Murder he made no scruple to avow it as a meritorious Act of which he had more cause to glory than to be ashamed And being afterwards more cunningly handled by one of his Majesties Chaplains sent to him from the Court of purpose to work him to it he confessed plainly and resolvedly That he had no other motive to commit that Murder but the late Remonstrance in which the Duke had been accused for being the Cause of all the Grievances and Mischiefs in the Common-wealth This news was brouâ—â—t unto the King as he was at the Publick Morning-Prayers in â—is Presence-Chamber the Court being then at Southwick not far from Portsmouth which he received with such a stedfast Countenance so unmoved a Paâ—ience that â—e withdrew not from the place till the Prayers were ended It is not to be doubted but that his Majesty was much afflicted in the loss of so dear a Servant in whose bosom he had lodged so much of his Counsels and to whose Conduct he had so fully recommended the Great Concernments of the Kingdom But such was the constancy of his Temper and the known evenness of his Spirit that in the middest of all those sorrows he neither neglected his Affairs abroad nor his Friends at home For notwithstanding this sad accident the Fleet set forwards under the Command of the Earl of Lindsey whose coming within sight of Rochel was welcom'd by those in the Town with all the outward expressions of Hope and Joy But his desires to do them Service were without Success For when he came he found the Haven so strongly barred that though he gallantly attempted to force his way and give Relief to the Besieged yet finding nothing but impossibility in the Undertaking he discharged his Ordnance against the Enemy and went off with safety Which being perceived by those of the Town who had placed their last hopes in this Attempt they presently set open their Gates casting themselves upon the Mercy of their Natural Prince whose Government and Authority they had for so many years before both opposed and sleighted And on the other side being well assured of that infinite anguish and disconsolation which Laud his now most trusty Servant must needs suffer under by the most barbarous Assassination of so dear a Friend he dispatch'd Elphiston his Cup-bearer with a gracious Message to comfort him in those disquiets of his Soul and on the neck of that a Letter of his own hand-writing to the same effect He looks upon him now as his Principal Minister well practised in the Course of his Business of whose fidelity to his Person and perspicacity of Judgment in Affairs of State he had found such good proof And therefore at the first time that Laud could find himself in a condition to attend upon him he used many gracious Speeches to him not only to wipe off the Remembrance of that sad Misfortune but to put him into such a Power by which he might be able to protect himself against all his Enemies He was before but an inferiour Minister in the Ship of State and had the trimming of the Sails the super-inspection of the Bulgings and Leakings of it Now he is called unto the Helm and steers the Course thereof by his sage Directions Having obtained this heighth of Power he casts his eye back on his Majesties Proclamation of the fourteenth of Iune Anno 1626. Of which though he had made good use in suppressing some of those Books which seemed to foment the present Controversies yet he soon found as well by his own Observation as by Intelligence from others That no such general notice had been taken of it as was first expected For being only published in Market-Towns and perhaps very few of them the Puritan Ministers in the Country did not conceive themselves obliged to take notice of it And much less could it come to the ears of Students in Universities for whose restraint from medling either by Preaching or Writing in the Points prohibited it might seem most necessary He knew that by the Laws of the Land all Ministers were to read the Book of Articles audibly and distinctly in the hearing of their Parishioners when they first entred on their Cures and that by the Canons of the Church all that took Orders or Degrees were publickly to subscribe unto them A Declaration to the same effect before those Articles must needs give such a general signification of his Majesties pleasure that no body could from thenceforth pretend ignorance of it which must needs render his transgression the more inexcusable Upon which prudent considerations he moved his Majesty that the Book of Articles might be reprinted and such a Declaration placed before them as might preserve them from such misconstructions as had of late been put upon them and keep them to their native literal and Grammatical sense His Majesty approved the Counsel as both pious and profitable and presently gave order that all things should be done according as he had advised A Declaration of great influence in the course of our Story and therefore here to be subjoyned in its proper place By the King BEing by Gods Ordinance according to Our just Title Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governour of the Church within these Our Dominions We hold it most agreeable to Our Kingly Office and Our own Religious Zeal to conserve and maintain the Church committed to Our charge in the Unity of true Religion and in the bond of Peace and not to suffer unnecessary Disputations Alterations and Questions to be raised which may nourish Faction both in the Church and Common-wealth We have therefore upon